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All kinds of trees get planted that were a good idea at one time, but no longer make sense, Anderson says. He gives one example of an ornamental crab apple tree, the kind that drops hundreds of small apples all over a yard.

“If I have had 15 years of spending an hour every second day raking up and vacuuming up or clearing up some kind of debris on my property, and I don’t want to do it anymore, I should be able to.”

It’s OK for the city to give incentives to infill developers to keep mature trees when they’re redeveloping a lot — something that the city recently decided to do — but that’s as far as the city should go on, Anderson argues.

Edmonton homeowner Shannon Hrehirchuk says he’s had to take down several trees on his lot when they’ve grown to be unruly and encroached on other trees. Hrehirchuk does not see why the city government should force him to get a permit to take do such basic work. “It just seems little bit much for them to have to take control of my backyard.”

Homeowner Don Sager agrees, saying it’s another example of the government infringing on property rights. “We paid a lot of money for what we get. It seems to me we should be allowed to put on there what we want.”

But Coun. Ben Henderson says clear-cutting of lots for infill development needs to be addressed. “It’s just way too easy right now for a builder doing infill to just level the site unnecessarily.”

City councillors are starting to get a lot of pushback on this kind of clear-cut of lovely, mature trees. “I think the community really laments that loss,” says Coun. Scott McKeen.