FOLEY – In a quiet neighborhood along West Orange Avenue, a Foley Public Works crew member stands high in a bucket truck, securing part of a tall pine tree before making a precise cut with a chainsaw.
The dead tree poses a hazard to nearby homes and traffic—and removing it is exactly the kind of work Foley’s new Urban Forestry Unit was created to handle.
“This tree is just a few feet from a house,” said Corey Parker, who leads the new unit. “A limb has already fallen and hit a parked car, so it needed to come down before something worse happened.”
The removal is a careful, methodical process. Each section of the tree is tied off and slowly lowered to the ground after being cut. For safety, one lane of West Orange Avenue is temporarily closed during the operation. The entire removal is expected to take about eight hours.
Because the pine is located in the city right of way, Foley is responsible for its removal. City Councilman Charles Ebert III noticed the tree and reported it to John Graham, Foley’s horticulture director, who then alerted the Urban Forestry team.
The Urban Forestry Unit was created in January 2025 to maintain trees on city streets and rights of way. In addition to removing dead or dangerous trees, the crew trims branches to ensure safe clearance for trucks and emergency vehicles.
“We trim all roadways to a clearance height of at least 13 feet, 6 inches, which is the legal requirement,” Parker said. “But we usually go to 16 feet to safely accommodate campers and our fire trucks, which are about 14 feet high.”
Previously, tree maintenance on city property was handled by outside contractors. Since launching the new in-house team, the city has saved an estimated $300,000 in contracting fees, according to Mike Chavers, Foley’s street maintenance supervisor.
The Urban Forestry Unit is now an essential part of Foley’s public safety and infrastructure efforts—helping keep neighborhoods safe while providing significant savings to taxpayers.