StatCounter

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Trees



My neighbors just cut down more trees and made a large parking area even larger. It's going to stop soon as there aren't that many trees left on their lot.
Maybe my lovely wife and I are tree huggers. That's not to say I won't cut down trees when it's needful. The health of a woodlot requires a certain amount of thinning. Our tree cutting is a conscious act. Trees take a very long time to grow and only a few minutes to cut down. It's only prudent to think long and hard about cutting one down.

Then it helps to know a bit about the different species of trees. I've seen people who've cut down most of a stand of spruce but leave one very nice looking tree standing. Spruce have shallow root systems and need their companions to resist wind and snow. It's not long before their one nice tree is lying on its side, or on top of their house or car.

I've a few lots of land across the road and uphill from my house. When my neighbor first moved in they offered to buy those lots from me. I said no and I'm glad I did. I can imagine what they would have done to the land. My water source feeding my shallow well runs though that property. Once they cut the trees down and run heavy equipment all over, my well might have gone dry. I've seen it happen.

There's a blank slate method to land development. Cut all the trees down, bulldoze everything flat, then start from scratch. Once the houses, utilities, and roads are in, call in the landscapers. They may even put in some medium sized trees. Sitting on hard compacted mineral soils those trees die within a year or two, but the houses are sold by then.

Seems to me that if you don't have any respect for living things you might as well move to the city. Don't move to the country and they flatten everything that makes it country.

-Sixbears

6 comments:

  1. Sadly same over here Sixbears. Builders buy a piece of land, first thing they do is cut all the trees down then remove the top soil. Then build their ugly house from plans similar to thousands of other ugly houses. Then sell the top soil back to the happy new owners... Or the people who move to the countryside, then start complaining about the smells of farming, of the mooing of cows and crowing of the chickens... I think they should be shot myself. Where do those idiots think the food comes from?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sad to see that type of development also goes on across the big pond.

      People move to the country and then want to change everything that makes it country. As for shooting them . . . that's a problem. . . do I use the 30-06? 9mm? 12 gauge? decisons, decisions.

      Delete
  2. Agree, take your time on deciding which trees should go. Prune back if you need to, but it sometimes isn't apparent at the moment which tree needs to stay and why it needs to stay.

    I remember years ago, a mesquite tree that was growing near the house was altered. A trunk from the ground was cut off, leaving about 36" off the floor to provide a platform to keep items handy. Years went by and a visitor left by himself use it to cut some kindling. Only he wasn't very good with a hatchet and really cut up the smooth surface of that trunk, leaving crevasses and splintered up wood. Looked like hell.

    I wanted to kick his ass when he said "There's trees all over the place - whats the biggie ?" Jeazy Peezy, blood pressure still rises when I thnk about that, though its been nearly 20 years since that happened.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some people just don't get it. Nice guest you had there.

      Delete