The oaks on Clara Malecki's street will never be the same again, she fears.

Until recently, they were big, bushy trees that branched out in all directions.

Now, they resemble surreal half-eaten lollipops.

Malecki and others in her James Island neighborhood say South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. had their trees trimmed too aggressively, damaging oaks that have long graced the area.

BRAD NETTLES/STAFF Clara Malecki, 83, stands under a recently trimmed oak tree in her yard Thursday. The Fort Lamar Road resident could not see the SCE&G power lines from under her tree before a company hired by the power company trimmed the trees in her and her neighbors' yards.

"It's sad. I'll never live long enough to see them look as well as they did yesterday," the 83-year-old said.

Malecki's neighbor Vicki Foran said she was stunned to see what had happened this week to the trees along Fort Lamar Road.

Foran said she knows the trees have to be trimmed but far too much was removed.

"They destroyed one side of the road," she said. "They are gigantic trees, and SCE&G has actually hired someone, is actually paying someone, to go in and destroy them."

Robin Montgomery, a spokesman for SCE&G, said the utility is sensitive to concerns about trees but has a responsibility to keep branches away from the lines.

He said SCE&G has switched in the past decade to a pruning method that removes limbs at their base, rather than just trimming around the ends of the branches.

Montgomery said complaints stem from residents' unfamiliarity with the new method, which he said is better for trees in the long run but is more visible initially.

"It basically comes down to a method of trimming that they are not used to seeing," he said.

The "natural pruning" method avoids problems such as limbs that decay after being trimmed, Montgomery said.

"When it's initially done, it can look more severe," he said. "But it's actually much healthier for the tree."

Montgomery said that apart from a branch here or there, there have been no cases in recent years in which excessive pruning has taken place.

Malecki certainly was not used to seeing the way the oak in her yard looked Thursday.

She said she has watched the oak grow for 40 years and it did not need to be cut back as much as it was.

It just doesn't look right, she said.

"They have made the tree look so sad, and now I'm sad," she said.

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