two choices.

Get a pole, or a ladder, or a tree trimmer.

Or

Get more bags and cover the whole thing in them.

I have one in the tree in front of my living room. Exactly same view. Every year one gets caught in there. I hate them with a passion. Soon the tree will be covered in leaves and u will not see it anymore, sun, wind and cold temperatures will destroy it, but it will happen again.

Knit a tree-cozy?

At least it's not in the ocean choking a turtle...

3rd choice to add to Monstermash--toy bow and arrow set...shoot it down! (or maybe a tennis ball)

Could you reach it with a long pole from your window, or one of the neighbouring apartment windows?

i refer to the one on our neighbor's property and in view out our side window as a flag. it somehow makes us feel better about it.

Oh, an African Flower! How nice, a sign of spring.

Train a squirrel?

Slingshot.. seriously, I am sure you could get it with a slingshot and some gravel.

Just don't aim for the birds or children

It'll be less noticeable when the tree has leaves. The bag will probably wear out from sun and wind, and will fall off. Have patience. My mother had the same problem, and the bag eventually disappeared. It took a year, though.

While these are too expensive for the casual user to buy for themselves, maybe a local group owns one that you could borrow, or request for them to come and do it for you? http://www.bagsnaggers.com/

We have a beautiful 60 foot cedar tree in our front yard. About 6 months ago, someone's bundle of orange helium balloons got caught up near the top. Even though the balloons have long deflated, the crap is still there, wrapped around a branch. I'm hoping it eventually gets free on its own. Otherwise, we'd have to bring in a cherry picker since it is on a steep hillside so is actually much higher than the tree itself. Not happening.

With the bag, though, I think it will eventually free itself.

tie something heavy around a rope (like a wrench) and swing the rope up into the tree until it is knocked loose.

Get a bamboo pole. They're super long, nearly unbreakable, and green! My dad duct taped a sturdy forked stick to the end of one and used it to hang christmas lights on the giant blue spruce trees in front of our house every christmas and even used it to get my kite of an oak tree when I was a kid.

Those things can last for ages. We have a new house and there is one in the neighbor's tree, in a condo complex where the mangement is not going to be interested that it is ugly to me! I cant wait for leaves to hide it, if they do.

Birds need to get smarter and realise they could have a nice waterproof nest in there.

Tell people your yard was used for filming the flying plastic shopping bag scene in "American Beauty." You're famous!

fishing pole?

There has been a yellow bag stuck in a tree visible from our living room window since Christmas. I actually enjoy the shot of color it gives our otherwise dreary landscape.

I would ask the management company to hire tree trimmers. It's worth a shot.

just throw a object at it, like a shoe.

if not, just let nature do its thing and step in and "wind", that's a phenomenon take over.

tennis ball people.

(a shoe will get caught and wrenches tied to ropes will kill a brutha)

The wrench a rope idea was amusing me, as I thought of dozens of people outside trying to heave a wrench high enough and ducking as it came back down or in a panic as it lands inches from a parked car. Gravel in a slingshot and fishing poles too. : )

Tennis ball is probably the safest.

In my neighborhood of Montreal, the city has a special squad that comes around to take things out of the trees. Ah, socialism.

Yes, the wrench on a rope can be dangerous I guess, but effective!

I suggested it as that's how we hang tarps when we go camping... to hoist the rope over the taller tree branches and lift the tarps up higher. You don't want to be standing right underneath the tree and throwing it straight up above your head... i thought that was obvious... but apparently not :)

I like the sound it makes when the wind blows.
An empty bag beats a full one. There used to be one caught up in a tree on my street in front of an apartment building. Considering the people that live in it, we figured someone threw it out their window instead of walking it down to the curb. Anyhow, that full bag, full with trash, dangled up there all throughout winter. Everytime I walked home, I wondered if/when it would crash and spill its ghastly contents on me... It's gone now. As should every plastic store bag be banned. The new "problem" now is how many cloth/reusable bags we end with - we had that conversation the other day: you end up in a store without your tote and buy another one out of guilt!

tie something heavy around a rope (like a wrench) and swing the rope up into the tree until it is knocked loose.
posted by alaylam on March 19th 2009 at 3:24pm
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If you want a broken head instead of a plastic bag in your tree that is!!!

Am I the only one who sees two bags?

The breezeway I walk through at work (university) there is a black trash bag hanging in the tree right outside of it. Its been there for years. EVERY time i see it I think its a monkey! (I have no idea why) and I jump.

Yes, Sam, I think there are a few bags in the tree pictured (which isn't my tree, but looks exactly like it, bags and all). My tree also has more than one bag snagged in it. It's quite frustrating and impossible to reach! Thanks, everyone, for your helpful comments.

In my neighborhood of Montreal, the city has a special squad that comes around to take things out of the trees. Ah, socialism.
posted by Lisa (Montreal)
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It's not socialism if they leave the garbage in Regina's tree - she stated in the post that she's in Montreal too!

Consider it sculpture and enjoy the art!

Climb the tree for it? LOL

Can you get a hose with enough water power behind it? and be prepared to be drenched.

I am LMAO picturing the rope-and-wrench attempt. Let's just hope somebody remembers to film it for YouTube (including the emergency room scene). And then, of course, it gets on to "America's Most Stupid People" or somesuch show.
(seriously, tho, i hope nobody tries it. water hose sounds interesting!)

bepsf and monstermash: ROFL!!!!!

scare a neighborhood cat into the tree, wait for the fire department and then suggest that "while they're up there...." ;-)

Call the city or the local utility and tell them the branches are affecting power/telephone lines on windy days. They'll trim the tree, and hopefull the bag will go with it.

The next high wind may dislodge it.

All you have to do is get a long handled tree pruner. You can probably rent one or borrow one from a neighbor. The pole should be long enough and since there is often a rope running down the side to the handle to allow you to pull the scissor bit that cuts the branch, you can probaby use the same technique to snag the bag. If the pole itself isn't long enough, standing on an A-frame ladder will probably give you just enough extra height.

See what I'm referring to here: http://www.hirestation.co.uk/images/Tree-Pruner.jpg

LilyC- they do it once a season. I'll bet the crew hits Regina's neighborhood too.

Iron Eyes Cody is rolling over in his grave.

have you read Ian Frazier's articles in the New Yorker about removing bags from trees in Brooklyn? highly recommended!

Oh, for crying out loud. It's just a plastic bag stuck in a tree.

Think of it as post-post-modernism: a semi-naturally occurring sculpture called Tree, plus Plastic Bag.