For decades, towering cottonwood trees provided welcome shade at Table Mesa Village Mobile Home Park, a small, tightly knit community in South Boulder. Some residents moved there specifically for the trees. But now, they’re all gone.
Zane Blackmer, a local real estate investor, bought the park in 2016. Not long after, he removed more than half the trees. Earlier this year, he cut down the rest. He told residents the trees were nearing the end of their lives, were a liability during windstorms and had disrupted sewer lines.
Some residents dispute that. They say the trees were healthy, had never caused problems under previous owners and served an essential purpose: keeping their homes cool during increasingly hot summers…