just so you know, I did call Mowbrays minutes after their crew had left my house, made my concern known, and received a prompt call-back a couple hours later from a supervisor in Ventura. He came up to see the damage and spent quite a while talking with me. He appeared to agree with me that spike-climbing is not appropriate, he was well aware of ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) guidelines against this practice. He mentioned that they have conducted ‘lots’ of training for their employees, and that they have 4 ISA certified arborists on staff. He agreed with everything I pointed out about the risks associated with this practice.

He offered to place my name on ‘a list’ to submit to Edison to note that no spike climbing should ever happen at my address in the future. I appreciated that he was concerned about the future of my trees, regardless of whether his company wins Edison’s contract in the future. However, my greater concern is that they stop ALL spike climbing, not only at specific properties where owners complain (how many owners are not watching when this happens, and don’t even notice after the fact?). I want to hear Mowbray’s, and Edison for that matter, committ to not use spikes at all.

Tom Bostrom mentioned to me a county ‘tree protection ordinance’ or something like that. I’m not famliiar with it, but he explained that becuase Edison ‘owns’ the easment under thier lines, they are basically ‘exempt’ from this ordinance. This may be true, but I still think it’s something worth trying to tackle and clarify. Edison should be required to hire contractors that adhere to ISA standards as well as tree protection ordinances. At the very least, if they are going to use spikes in certain situations, it would be appropriate to follow tool sanitation procedures between trees to prevent the spread of pathogens from one tree to the next.

My next step will be to call Edison and see if I can find anyone to talk with about this, and perhaps Supervisor Bennet’s office (I’m in the unincorporated area).

I didn’t know there was an Ojai Trees facebook page. I’ll have to look for it…

Thanks!