Alas, poor maple....

They have been replacing our street this summer (which is now this fall). They told us in July at the townhall meeting that certain trees would have to be removed, but that everyone else would be able to keep the tree or trees they had on their treelawn. We were one of the lucky households allowed to keep the stately red maple which shaded the south-facing front of our house. So we were told in July.

Early this morning I was at my computer drinking coffee and trying to wake up when I heard some very suspicious chainsaw sounds. I looked up and right before my eyes they were up on a cherry picker sawing limbs off my tree! I grabbed some clothes and ran downstairs and outside (barefoot -- no time for shoes!) and hollered at them "What are you doing?!!!!!!" They told me that our tree had to come down.

Now any idiot with a little woods sense could see that they were right. In the process of putting in the new cement strip which is our side of the street, they had cut off a bunch of roots. In the process of putting in the neighbor's driveway apron, they had cut off a few more. And in the process of preparing the ground for the new sidewalk, they had cut off another bunch. "That tree's gonna fall over," the foreman said. Still I made them stop work and called the city parks department; there was no answer so I left a message, came back out and told them I couldn't reach anyone. They radio'd the ranger in charge to come out and talk to me. They also told me there was some rot on the street side of the tree and a weak fork that meant it would split sooner or later. Resigned and with a better attitude now that I knew they weren't killing a healthy tree, I told them yes, you can go ahead and keep working. We don't want to hold up the guys with the cement who are just two houses away. We would like to be able to use our driveway by the end of the week. But someone should have given us a little advance notice that we were going to lose our tree. I was reacting out of emotional shock. All this could have been avoided with a little communication.

The ranger showed up and another guy from the city who remembered me (and I him) from the townhall meeting. Turns out that they only found out (or figured out?) yesterday that they would have to take down the tree. They apologized for not telling us. They were unhappy that it had to come down, too. We will get another tree, another red maple (all the replacement trees for our street will be red maple. Ho hum. Who decides these things? I want an oak!) Of course, it will be a few years before it's tall enough to do much good shading a two-story house (three if you count the attic). We can only hope that next summer is as mild as this summer was, and start saving for an exhaust fan for the attic.

For once I was glad not to be working. Coming home after the fact and finding the tree just gone would have been -- well, I'm real glad it didn't happen.

Curiously enough, after all that about how the tree would "fall over," etc., etc., when they went to remove the stump they had a very difficult time. They finally gave up and moved on so that the cement workers could do their thing. We returned in mid-afternoon from a trip to the grocery store to find it finally gone.