$12M verdict puts Savannah tree program in spotlight | savannahnow.com

Reasonable people agree what happened to Shanta Greene is a tragedy.

Empathy for a woman losing a leg from a falling limb is as normal as picturing streets lined with live oaks when Savannah comes to mind.

The question being asked is how something so beautiful could lead to something so horrible — and whether the city could have done more to prevent it.

Many of the 85,000 live oaks, magnolias, sweet gums and other trees that make up Savannah’s urban forest were planted after the Sea Islands hurricane of 1893 took a devastating toll on the city’s landscape.

The trees are cared for on a daily basis by forestry maintenance workers such as Jim Davis and Otis Jackson, who were busy removing potentially dangerous limbs on 37th Street Wednesday.

via $12M verdict puts Savannah tree program in spotlight | savannahnow.com.