We were successful in stopping the sidewalk project for the season and now have the winter to prepare a seminar on consequences to trees when repairing infrastructure. These people are not going to read a bunch of arboriculture books; although we did actually buy them the book Reducing Infrastructure Damage by Tree Roots (which they read and appreciated).
This is now a matter of staying proactive and assisting in educating the Public Works Dept that just because a tree is still upright and has a few green leaves does not necessarily translate to a healthy and stable tree.
We need pictures of the consequences. Articles on similar situations focusing on the potential outcome. They kept saying "but the trees aren't dead yet" and where we have been able to win a few people over, we need to keep driving the information home. Actual cases in other cities are going to carry a lot more weight than just our opinion of what MIGHT happen.
They kept blowing us off before by saying "the concrete guy said it wouldn't hurt the trees". Yeah, right,
like he knows more than the arborists about trees....
D and S Mc