Tree and shrub care in Scarborough, Maine.

Chapter 1106 sets clearance of 14 feet over the street and 8 feet over sidewalks for public trees and prohibits topping them. It also makes owners responsible for keeping private trees and shrubs from blocking pedestrians or drivers' views; if a notice to prune goes unanswered, the town may do the work and bill the owner. The Town Arborist can likewise serve notice when a private tree carries a disease or pest that threatens others.

Structural pruning that raises a canopy over a sidewalk or opens the view at a driveway handles both concerns before any notice arrives.

Street trees themselves are off limits to private crews: under the ordinance, only the Town Arborist, a designee or an approved contractor may prune, plant or remove a public tree, so work on a tree in the right-of-way in front of a house starts with the town.

For trees the town wants kept on public land, Chapter 1106 asks for fencing at least six feet from the trunk or at half the drip line, whichever is more, no cut or fill four inches or deeper in the drip line without an arborist or forester's approval, and trenches or footings at least eight feet from the trunk. Those are public-property standards and good practice on a private lot too.

Pests set the rest of the calendar. Scarborough falls within Maine's quarantine zone for emerald ash borer, and browntail moth webs are best clipped from oaks and fruit trees in winter, before the caterpillars come out in late April.