In the yard of my new home, four trees were cut down recently. Two of them were almost dead Ash trees that had stood sentinel on either side of the driveway for many decades. they were very tall, but the only leaves on them were sticking out crazily from new little branches along the trunk. The Ash Borer beetles had done their work. Probably because the leaves were already gone, the tree trunks weren’t materially damaged by the derecho of a few years ago. And one other tree in the front of the house, which might also have been an Ash, though I’m not sure, also came down.
Though I was sad to see these unnatural openings in the sky around the house, the fact that these trees were already dead meant that bringing them down was just the sensible thing to do. But in the yard between the house and church there stood a huge old locust tree, as tall as the sky. Half of it had been ripped down by the derecho, and now one huge branch was drooping its leaves clear to the ground while the last division of the trunk leaned at an alarming angle over some power lines. It was one of a line of locusts that some long-forgotten farmer had planted along a fence row. The survivors still lift their proud heads, marching up the little hill to the north.
When the tree service felled this giant, they had to use so much caution and ingenuity, carefully roping chunks of the branches and then winching them to the ground to avoid the power lines and the two sheds that the tree overlooked. Now, it’s gone, even the stump ground down to below ground level. I grieve that tree. If trees could think I believe it would have been thinking, “What did I do? Why are they chopping me down? haven’t I been through enough already?” No doubt the trustees of the church will plant some new trees to replace those we’ve lost. And that will be a good thing. But it will be for our grandchildren to enjoy them in their full height and grandeur. As someone wise has said, “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best is today.”
Oh, and I don’t have any idea whether mushrooms cluster around Ash or Locust trees, but I’ll keep my eyes open for fairy circles in the lawn.
