Residents on Hayes Street in Birmingham, Michigan, do not look forward to fall, when vegetation starts falling from trees. This residential street has 28 female Gingko trees that drop leaves and fruit on lawns, streets, and sidewalks. The leaves are not a problem, but the fruit is –when crushed the fruit releases a very unpleasant odor that residents say is a nuisance.
To combat this smell, residents have petitioned the City Commission to take action against the smell. The assistant city manager, Joe Valentine, was in attendance at the meeting when the petition was presented, along with a bag of the smelly fruit. Valentine has first-hand experience with the smell, because he lives on the street. He said of the Gingko fruit, “…once they mature and fall to the ground, when you crush them they have an odor to them. It causes an inconvenience, and that’s an understatement.”
So far, many residents would like to solve the problem by cutting down the trees, but Valentine says that isn’t likely to happen because there is a city ordinance in place to protect healthy trees that aren’t a nuisance or a danger to people. Injectable treatments to reduce fruit production and increased street cleanup were ideas that were discussed. There was also a worry that a precedent would be made if the Gingko trees were removed. “We don’t want to remove trees for just any reason. There’s a lot of trees in the community that people consider a nuisance because of flaky bark, roots…and we don’t just remove those trees,” said Lauren Wood, director of public services for the city.
But one resident said that increased street sweeping would do nothing for sidewalks or yards.