"We leave that up to the maintenance crews, our own or our contractors' crews, to tell us if there is a problem — they are the hands-on people," Chang said.

He said city records indicate that private contractor Nilasoni Landscape Inc. last trimmed the trees along Beckwith Street in November and did not notify the city that any of the trees might be in danger of falling over.

Employees at Nilasoni yesterday refused to answer any questions about their contract or to address a neighbor's assertions that an employee told him the tree would have to be removed.

225,000 trees

There is no crew that goes around the island specifically to inspect city-owned trees to ensure they are safe. Chang estimated the city is responsible for maintaining about 225,000 trees.

The nearly 100-year-old tree snapped at the base, sending the upper portions crashing into the bedroom where Julia Engle, a Punahou Middle School seventh-grader, was sleeping. The tree grew in a yard across the street from her home.

She remained in critical condition at The Queen's Medical Center, family attorney Richard Fried said.

Fried said Engle is being treated for head and chest injuries. Her condition "is essentially unchanged" from Tuesday, he said.

"She is still in critical condition, not responsive and her prognosis remains guarded," Fried said in a statement issued about 11:15 a.m. yesterday.

He said doctors cut away a portion of the girl's skull during hours-long surgery on Tuesday in an attempt to ease the pressure on her brain.

Examining evidence

Fried said he planned to go with an expert and city representatives yesterday afternoon to a city yard near Kapi'olani Park to examine portions of the tree that are being preserved as evidence.

Punahou's communications director, Laurel Bower Husain, said Engle "is an involved, active, excellent student."

Fried described her as "very outgoing" and with a "bubbly personality."

"Everyone just adores her," he said.

Just hours after the incident, a neighbor, Ed Chun, said that a crewman for a private tree-trimming company told him about three months ago that the tree was "sick" and should be removed, but no action was taken.

Chun said the private company was trimming trees along Beckwith when the worker made the comment to him. Chun did not identify the company.

Chang said city records do not list any calls from residents along Beckwith alerting the city of potential tree problems.

Others deemed safe

A special team of city tree experts was sent out after the tree fell Tuesday morning and concluded that other trees in the area are safe, he said.

"It's standard procedure to check the other trees in close proximity to make sure we're not going to have another situation," Chang said. "We will be doing a somewhat more invasive procedure in the next week or two to check further on the trees."

The city Department of Parks and Recreation Division of Urban Forestry has approximately 110 employees who maintain trees in city botanical parks, regular parks, medial strips and along city streets throughout the island.

At this point, the city does not have a computerized database that would show when each of the 200,000-plus trees in the city's charge was last tended to or if there were specific concerns about each of the trees, Chang said.