{"id":243856,"date":"2025-10-22T15:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243856\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:44:13","slug":"casper-program-to-cut-unsafe-trees-felled-by-doges-ax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/243856\/","title":{"rendered":"Casper program to cut unsafe trees felled by DOGE\u2019s ax"},"content":{"rendered":"

CASPER\u2014An aging, dead hulk of an ash tree trunk sits in front of Sheryl Lockard\u2019s home at the bottom of Washington Park in central Casper. What was once a lush part of what\u2019s dubbed the city\u2019s \u201cbig tree area\u201d has now become an eyesore that serves no purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Except perhaps one thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had cars slide into this tree,\u201d Lockard said, \u201cand it stopped them from wrecking my car.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of numerous troubled or dead trees that surround her home. Maintaining living trees and removing dead ones is a big ask for someone on a fixed income. \u201cI can\u2019t get that tree out, I\u2019ve got to pay water bills, and electric is high now,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m tapped out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Casper neighborhoods are filled with aging trees planted decades ago as the city was growing that are either past their natural life, or have succumbed to the area\u2019s harsh weather. Removing a century-old tree is expensive, as is regular maintenance for those who are on tighter budgets. Overgrown or dying trees can damage property, or in the worst cases injure or possibly kill pedestrians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was hope for Lockard and roughly 200 other Casper residents facing similar challenges who applied for the Branch Across Casper program earlier this year, according to Casper Parks Supervisor Katy Hallock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"City of Casper Parks Supervisor Katy Hallock poses near her office in Casper. (Dan Cepeda\/Oil City News)<\/p>\n

The Branch Across Casper program to help restore Casper\u2019s ailing tree canopy was on the cusp of receiving a nearly $700,000 grant from the Arbor Day Foundation with pass-through money provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just getting ready to start doing yard calls to each property, going out to evaluate the trees,\u201d Hallock said. Contractors were lined up, and starting last March, they had planned to look at the trees, talk to property owners and start selecting properties, focusing first on risks to sidewalks, pedestrians and roads. Applicants who weren\u2019t selected for spring could reapply for another season through 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But during President Donald Trump\u2019s first 100 days in office, he handpicked billionaire industrialist Elon Musk to oversee what Musk dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency to help reshape federal spending. Suddenly, federal funds destined for communities across the country were slashed or eliminated altogether. Programs that benefit local health, arts, environment and infrastructure vanished. Branch Across Casper did not escape the ax.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were thrilled and excited for this opportunity,\u201d Hallock said. \u201cYou know, as disheartening as [the cut] was to citizens, we were equally as saddened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Winter Storm Atlas dropped record amounts of early snow in Casper overnight on Oct. 4, 2013. Hundreds of trees were damaged, many blocking roads. (Dan Cepeda\/Oil City News)<\/p>\n

The Tree Canopy\u00a0<\/p>\n

Time was taking its toll, but it was Winter Storm Atlas, which dumped 16 inches<\/a> overnight from Oct. 3 into Oct. 4, 2013, that ramped up Casper\u2019s tree problem. The early season storm dropped record amounts of snow onto trees still loaded with leaves. At the time, the blizzard marked the biggest snowstorm so early in the season, coming nearly two weeks earlier than the 18.7 inches that fell Oct. 16-17 in 1998. Casper residents woke to the sound of aching tree limbs and branches cracking and falling by the hundreds. Power outages ensued, and the tree carnage blocked roads and covered lawns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took months and months to clean up from that,\u201d Hallock said.\u201dEven to this day we still come across trees that haven\u2019t been maintained since the storm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"At the time, the 2013 Winter Storm Atlas marked the biggest snowstorm so early in the season. Casper residents woke to the sound of aching tree limbs and branches cracking and falling by the hundreds. (Dan Cepeda\/Oil City News)<\/p>\n

Then came a sudden deep freeze the following year. On Nov. 10, 2014, the temperature swung from a high of 55 degrees to minus 19 degrees within 24 hours. \u201cThe trees were still pushing water, and the water froze,\u201d she said. Elm trees died by the score, along with many ash and juniper trees, and a lot of bushes around town. Many juniper trees bounced back after a couple of years, she said, but the overall impact was significant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 2006 Forest Service study found Casper\u2019s tree canopy to be at 8.9%, Hallock said. After the two storms, the canopy shrank to 3.64%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these trees can take a couple of years to die,\u201d she said, \u201cbut once they die, with our winds, there\u2019s a high risk of these trees blowing over.<\/p>\n

\"\"Winter Storm Atlas snapped and toppled trees as snow piled on leaves and branches until they could no longer bear the weight. (Dan Cepeda\/Oil City News)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to address the high-risk trees the best we can, but a lot of these trees are on private properties, and it\u2019s difficult for property owners to be able to afford to have these trees removed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Removing the dead trees was part of the plan. Pruning and maintaining neglected but still living trees was another. The grant money also would have paid to replant the trees with sturdier varieties. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo what we would see is this urban canopy starting to grow again, and we would have new trees all over,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The importance of a healthy tree canopy can\u2019t be understated. According to the Arbor Day Foundation, shade from well-canopied streets can reduce temperatures by up to 10 degrees. The presence of healthy trees in neighborhoods increases property values and reduces energy costs, offers protection from storms, provides homes for wildlife and generally improves mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to keep that canopy growing,\u201d Hallock said, \u201cand in order to do that you have to continually be planting trees.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bleak future<\/p>\n

The rise of unusual and extreme weather is a growing concern as the climate changes, which will likely mean more damage to the existing canopy in the future. Another factor is the increasing threat of pests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Donna Hoffman, horticulture extension educator at the University of Wyoming Extension Office, said her agency is watching the migration of one particular pest as it appears across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the emerald ash borer in Wyoming, at least it\u2019s not reported in Wyoming yet,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it\u2019s another pest that we have on the Front Range and in some of our surrounding states, and we do expect it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the name implies, the critter\u2019s larvae feast on the inner bark of ash trees, making the plants eventually unable to transport water and nutrients to their branches. The beetle was likely brought from Asia by accident on ships or aircraft and was first discovered in Michigan in the early 2000s. \u201cWe have the possibility of that pest [in Wyoming] that has decimated the ash trees in the Midwest,\u201d Hoffman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hoffman had also been looking forward to the now-cancelled Branch Across Casper program, in part because of a planned inventory of Casper\u2019s tree population that would\u2019ve provided up-to-date information on healthy trees. \u201cFinding out what kind of tree survived the last 10 or so years, and finding out what is doing well, would have been really good information for the community, city foresters and private arborists,\u201d she said. \u201cThat information could help them plant and diversify the tree canopy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the months since Branch Across Casper was unexpectedly canceled, Hallock has been researching and applying for smaller grants, knowing that none will likely be as comprehensive. At the very least, the city can still plant trees to hopefully keep Casper\u2019s canopy growing. Last week, the city announced that 79 trees will be planted thanks to the Arbor Day Foundation and the Enterprise Mobility Foundation\u2019s Urban Tree Initiative.<\/p>\n

These smaller steps don\u2019t address the lingering problem hundreds of residents still face: what to do with the troubled and dead trees on their properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, the unexpected end of the federally-funded program leaves Sheryl Lockard and many like her with difficult choices. She\u2019s already spent money to have the top and most dangerous part of her dead tree removed. But there\u2019s still a large bare trunk as tall as her house in the front yard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I could get it down [near the bottom] for $750, but I think it\u2019s like $1,500 to take the whole thing out,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t do that, there\u2019s no way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Winter Storm Atlas damaged hundreds of trees in 2013. Casper is still grappling with the aftermath. (Dan Cepeda\/Oil City News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CASPER\u2014An aging, dead hulk of an ash tree trunk sits in front of Sheryl Lockard\u2019s home at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-243856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}