My Champion Schefflera Tree

Normally, I would just let a matter like this go and not draw more attention to it. However, I received an unsolicited phone call this week from someone who would like to correct the record. He did so with me through a voice mail message which I have preserved in digital format. We also chatted when I returned his call. More on this later in the story.

This all "stems" - sorry - from a day a couple of months ago. In my normal daily routine, walking the dogs around 8:30 a.m., I noticed a crew of tree trimmers in the area. They approached me on the street and asked if I needed work to be done in my yard. After a little thought, I said yes and then we went on to discuss the particulars - what would be cut and the price. I told them to trim a schefflera, a mango tree and a ficus hedge in my backyard. It was well before hurricane season and I had been concerned about doing the work in advance of a storm threat.

I was away for most of the morning to attend a meeting. When I returned, surprisingly the work was finished and they were putting away their equipment. The crew leader came up to me holding a City of Lake Worth Tree Board brochure. He said that while they were working, someone from the "tree board" - his words came to look at the work as it was going on. The crew leader thought that a neighbor of mine had called the City. It did turn out to be a major project and there was a lot of debris from the cutting for which I called the City for a special pick-up. Anyway, the person from the City - it could have been someone from code enforcement, or the tree board or whoever else - looked at the schefflera tree in particular. The trimmers had "hat - racked" the tree and the discussion centered on that. The person from the City handed the crew leader the Tree Board's brochure and said that it what was done was o.k. since it was considered an invasive species and therefore not regulated under the ordinance.

The special pick up came the next day and I didn't hear anything further from the City, until Martin Cybulski called me this week.

A couple of weeks ago, Walter Baker decided to make this (the hat-racking of the schefflera) an issue on one of the local Internet discussion boards. Apparently he noticed it as he was driving through the area, probably on one of his COP rides. He felt compelled to take the following picture of the tree and post a picture from the Tree Board's brochure to show that what I had done was an example of hat-racking.

Here is the picture from the brochure which shows an example of the practice.

Now, Walter and I have been acquaintances for a while through our common friend Jim Stafford. For reasons not particularly clear to me, my relationship with Walter has become strained enough that he is compelled to write 1000+ word single spaced essays in one block paragraphs of all sorts of perceived transgressions. The animosity is also directed at Jim Stafford and has become more so since Jim's announcement that he is running for the District #2 Commission seat. I wish Walter well and would be willing to talk to him about what happened to our relationship - in private - and not on the Internet. But, alas.

Here is a picture of us in happier times coming back from drift boat fishing last May. Walter is second from the left. The fellow on the extreme left is Matt Falvey - expert fisherman and on the right is Jim Stafford and then me.

I was surprised when Martin Cybulski called as we do not talk that frequently. Martin works for the City and is staff to the Tree Board among many other duties caring for growing things in the City. We had many pleasant interactions during my time on the Planning and Zoning Board and have respect for each other. Apparently, someone had contacted him and asked him if he had read the local Internet discussion board where Walter Baker mentions his name. Walter had called him to check the facts on what I was telling him. Reading Walter's posts, one would get the impression that I had somehow lied and/or Martin had called me a liar regarding this incident.

Martin assured me that half of what Walter wrote about he didn't say and that he surely didn't infer that I was a liar. He confirmed that the City is not concerned about what people do to schefflera trees. If anything, they would like them removed, but nothing compels property owners to do so. He then mentioned that this was the second time Walter had done this - this scenario has happened before? Now, I do have his voice mail message digitally recorded. I choose not to post it here or make it available for distribution. I will only play it with Martin's permission.

So, such is the power of the Internet. Many people have come up to me as I go out and about and ask about my tree. They also ask what I could have done to Walter that would merit such an attack.

I took a picture of the tree today and it is bouncing back from the trimming. I will probably take it down soon, which is encouraged for any invasive tree. For now it stands.