Trees Please

In Europe this summer I saw trees which were nearly 200 years old…..trees which have survived the devastation of two world wars……like the huge sycamores which line many boulevards and grace the parks of what once was bombed-to-bits Budapest where, at a point in 1945, eighty percent of buildings were severely damaged and all seven bridges spanning the Danube were destroyed…..and I wonder why my peaceful home in the USA had to sacrifice a perfectly healthy 175-year old white oak with a 5-foot diameter base to the local board of water and light’s assault on trees in our community.

The utility company was attempting to pre-empt storm damage.  It apparently  believes that removing or savagely trimming trees is a better course of action than re-routing or burying its precious power lines.

The utility company might have considered pollarding trees, an “old country” procedure that produced ideal-size firewood needed to heat many European homes centuries ago.  It’s a tree-trimming technique that is still practiced in many European cities today to maintain trees at prescribed heights.  Pollarding wouldn’t have been my first choice, but our utility company went with the worst choice…..if, in fact, it gave any thought at all to any course of action other than search and destroy.

It is not a compliment to our community that a wire the diameter of a breadstick is considered to be of greater value to society than a massive oak tree which predates that line by 100 years.

Allowing this gigantic glory of nature to be removed from my home’s backyard is the worst decision I’ve made this year.  The effects will be seen and felt by those who occupy this space for at least the next 100 years.

JER