Trees near the house: risk, pruning and the law

The trees are a large part of why people buy on this coast. They are also the heaviest things that can land on a house, a car or a person. Looking after a property here means looking after its trees with the same regularity as its roof.

What a tree in trouble looks like

The International Society of Arboriculture lists the defects that raise the risk of a tree or a limb failing: dead branches, cracks or splits in the trunk or major limbs, weak branch unions, signs of decay such as cavities or fungus growing from the wood, damage to the roots, and a lean that is getting worse.

Dead branches are the most obvious. What matters is their size and what is underneath: a dead limb over the forest floor is habitat, and the same limb over the parking area is a hazard. A yearly inspection before the rains, and another look after any major storm, is a reasonable routine. Wet-season storms arrive when the soil is saturated and roots have the least grip.

Why topping makes it worse

Cutting the top off a tree to make it safer or to open a view is the commonest mistake. The Society calls topping perhaps the most harmful pruning practice known. It removes much of the leaf area the tree feeds itself with, leaves large wounds that decay, and does not reduce the hazard: in the long term it makes the tree more dangerous. Proper pruning removes selected branches back to where they join, and is work for a trained climber.

Branches over the roof

A branch that overhangs the house drops its leaves into the gutters, scrapes the roof coating in the wind and keeps the roof shaded and damp. It is also a bridge. Animals use it, and so do termites: the tree-nesting termites common here build their covered tunnels along branches and house walls alike. Keeping branches clear of the roofline solves several problems at once.

Palms

Coconuts and dry fronds fall without warning and are heavy enough to injure. Palms over paths, parking, terraces and pools are cleaned of nuts and dead fronds on a schedule, and more often where guests stay.

Roots

Trees planted too near a septic drain field grow their roots into it, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency's advice is to keep them at a distance. The same care applies to buried water pipes and to paving.

What the law says

Cutting trees in Costa Rica is regulated on private land too. The Forestry Law, number 7575, declares protection areas where cutting or removing trees is prohibited: a radius of 100 metres around permanent springs, and a strip along both banks of rivers, creeks and streams that is 15 metres wide in rural zones and 10 in urban zones on flat ground, and 50 metres where the terrain is steep. Penalties under the law include prison.

Outside those areas, land covered by forest cannot be converted to another use, and cutting naturally grown trees on other land needs authorisation first, with a limit on how many per hectare each year. Planted trees are treated differently, and the law allows permits for trees to be cut for reasons of human safety. Which rule applies to a particular tree is a question for the local office of SINAC, the conservation authority, before the chainsaw starts and not after.

This is a summary for owners, not legal advice. Before any tree is cut, ask SINAC or a forestry professional what applies to your property.