Big, beautiful trees can be a boon to urban neighbourhoods but they can also be a liability.

In Winnipeg, there are 1,500 trees listed as high risk for limbs breaking or the entire tree falling down, thereby posing a danger to people or property.

The city hopes to take care of all the trees on the list by the end of 2016.

In the meantime, however, some people are worried because the at-risk trees are not marked in any way.

City forester Martha Barwinsky says the trees aren't marked until just before the work orders are issued for the crews because that's the most efficient use of city time.

One six-block stretch of Ashland Avenue in Riverview has 26 problem trees that need attention and people living there say they frequently see large limbs come crashing down.

Jeremy Toews says he'd like to see better notification.

In June 2014, he was hit by a falling maple tree.

"On our way into the car, I was just about to put my daughter in and heard a crack," says Toews. "This 60-foot maple that was right over here came crashing down on us and the car."

His wife scooped their uninjured baby girl off the pavement and called 911.

After being treated in hospital, Toews missed the next two weeks of work.

Toews doesn't know if the tree that hit him was on the city's list, but he thinks people living near the high-risk trees should be notified.

"What's the breaking point? If the tree had killed me or my daughter, would something be done then?" he asks. "Probably. Should it have to come to that? Probably not."