someones killing my shamel ash, help!

9 years ago

My husband and I bought a house in West Los Angeles last year. Being that we live in LA, we are lucky to have a yard and even luckier to have a tree, a Shamel Ash. It's big and a big focal point in the yard.

The tree we find out later has been in a war with a neighbor. Someone (I'm guessing our neighbor) has been trying to kill this tree for years. They have tried to chop it all the way around to cut off the water supply, drilled holes and poor chemicals down the trunk. Our gardener even said the neighbor has asked him to kill the tree in the past. We hired a arborist to come and look at the tree. He said, "I get a lot of people calling thinking someone is trying to kill their tree, someone really IS trying to kill this tree."

Our neighbor, the most likely and only suspect I have, says he LOVES the tree. That the woman who was renting the house before was crazy and she is coming back and killing the tree. I realize I am coming late into this crazy war. I want to get along with everyone. We tried to make our backyard nicer, build a bench around the tree and a wall against his pool house. We even have 2 cameras on the tree all the time but couldn't afford the recording system (we just got a house, wasn't planning on these extra drama, you never do). I am always nice to him, even though he always knows when I'm home. He is creepy that way.

We have never caught him on camera, sometimes in the morning there are black spots where the wood is rotting and a chemical smell. Always small amounts. We try to wash it away or change the soil but its always a lot of work.

We went away for the weekend and came back to the tree have black running down the sides and a puddle in the center of the tree in the branches with this yellow, gunck, smells like a auto body shop.

I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO! Unless I catch him on camera the police can't do anything about it, because its "only a tree". Its the only tree I HAVE!

I think he is standing on his pool house and somehow pouring sometime from his roof in the middle of the night.

IDEAS!? Please help.

Comments (4)

leilanibunny86
Original Author
9 years ago
photo of tree and his pool house
mikebotann
9 years ago
The tree's litter is getting in his pool.
He's blaming some mystical crazy lady so he won't get blamed when he's finally successful in killing the tree.
If it dies it's going to be real expensive to remove.
Mike
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Smivies (Ontario - 5b)
9 years ago
You need a critter cam with night vision (or just start recording with your existing cameras). Sure the equipment isn't cheap and you don't have much money after buying the house BUT $200-$400 is a lot cheaper than removing the tree at your own expense. If you can stop the culprit or at least prove who it is, you might be able to save the tree or recoup the removal costs from the culprit.
salicaceae
9 years ago
Wildlife camera indeed..That's what I would do..Then again, I would shoot said neighbor on site if this happened here. I'm not in LA. Are there no building codes for setbacks there? That "pool house" is right on your property line? Maybe that could be investigated??