When I get home today, two beautiful 40’+ tall white ash trees that were in my yard will be gone. They’ve shaded our house and kept it cool in the summer for the 24 years we’ve lived there. My husband insists that one of these days during a wind storm, blizzard, etc. they will fall on the electric wires. I feel very sad. I hate seeing trees cut down. I probably sound like a kook but I gave each of them a pat this morning and said I was sorry.
Is anyone else a tree nut?
I guess I am, that seems horrible as Ashes are very sturdy trees and live over 200 years with ease. 40’ doesn’t sound particularly tall for one so they’re probably not that old.
16 years ago we moved to a 1 1/2 acre property with many trees on it. In the intervening time we’ve lost several trees, either to storms or having to be cut down due to disease. Every time, it kind of feels like losing a friend.
Did they fall victim to the Emerald Ash Borer? Here in Michigan that cursed green bug raced through the state years ago killing ash trees everywhere. I don’t know it there’s a single ash tree even left in Michigan.
I assume it’s too late now, but just because your husband thinks they’ll fall doesn’t mean he’s correct. I think you and he should have consulted someone to see if they were healthy.
We have lost literally hundreds of ash trees on our 60 acre property, due to the emerald ash borer. It’s tragic to see all those dead trees all over the place. We’ve had to spend a few thousand dollars removing ones that threatened the house, and are now felling those that will eventually fall over our private road. What sadness! East central Wisconsin has been badly damaged by the ash borer, and a drive through the area reveals countless dead mature trees. Argh!
Fortunately our local tree population is mixed so we still have many healthy maple, cedar, birch, walnut and other varieties. But local flooding did kill a young maple of ours along with some mature cedars whose roots got inundated.
We do have a lot of firewood, though. And we’re planting new trees, but I don’t expect I’ll be around to see them mature.
We are letting the electric/utility companies deal with ones that threaten wires, though.
I lost the tree outside my living room window in a storm about 6 years ago and I still miss it every day. Not only did I loose the shade (I get full sun every afternoon now and have to shut the blinds), but also the little wildlife ecosystem that the tree provided. Another thing that I noticed was how the tree acted as a noise dampener and even filtered out cooking smells that I had never noticed before.
Seems to me like cutting down mature healthy shade trees to prevent a potential power outage is a bad tradeoff for the cooling and beauty they provide.
After we moved out of the Ohio home we lived in for nearly 20 years, the new owner cut down two huge maples in the front yard, and all but one of the arborvitaes we’d planted as a screen along the street. The farmland across the way is bound to give way to a housing development at some point, so those tree-cutting numbnuts will get the full benefit of construction noise and the happy sounds of raucous new neighbors in years to come.
We’ve had several storm-damaged or half-dead trees removed since moving in to our new place, but I’ve planted over 40 trees to more than compensate, including a new arborvitae screen to provide extra privacy from the road and our closest neighbors. Our “heritage” tree is a gigantic Northern catalpa that may date from construction of the house over 100 years ago.
He did consult someone. He was told that the size of the crowns in relation to the size of the trunks made them top-heavy I guess.
The ash borer is in the area. The city took down all of the big ash trees in the downtown area/civic center. I think that they took them down before the ash borers got to them as a precautionary measure. I don’t think ours were infested.
My husband is kind of a worry-wart when it comes to big trees. We had a huge red pine fall one night. It missed our bedroom by 6 inches. We have had a lot of wind storms and just very windy days in the last few years. So I get where he’s coming from, but it doesn’t make it any easier for me.
We have beautiful trees all around our house, barn, and property. My gf planted many of them 30 years ago. We try to plant a few each year to replace the few that need taken down each year.
Those bastards have pretty much killed every Ash in Toronto by now. They killed the Green Ash in my front yard about 10 years ago.
I have a Black Walnut in my backyard. It is closer to the end of its life than the beginning, at least when it comes down, the wood will have value. I’ll feel sorry for the squirrels that have grown to rely on it.
Is your husband an arborist? If the trees are healthy, and that’s a big if, the risk of them being blown over in a windstorm may be low. I would have hired an arborist to assess the trees to see if taking them down is a good idea or is short-sided. If it would make you feel better you could plant two replacement trees.
We have the biggest aspen in the neighborhood and when the wind blows it sounds like a rain shower. I’m sure Mrs. Cad would rather sell the house and move than have to cut it down.
We took out about 6 very nice 80’ tall pine trees last fall. But they where leaning towards our house, where we park our cars, propane tank etc.
A big 100 footer fell across the drive the winter before last. My wife leaves for work very early in the morning. And… my chainsaw would not start. So we took turns at it with an axe and a hatchet in the snow and dark so my wife could get through.
Chainsaw now fixed, and axe sharpened.
Pine Trees tend to be shallow root and fairly weak. They also are generally fast growing and don’t live all that long.
I think the logic in taking down pines near power lines or houses is a lot different than a tree like an ash.
We had to take down two lovely silver birches in our front yard about a month ago. They were beautiful, but they were water hogs and their root systems were very invasive. They were replaced by a drought-resistant garden of well-mulched salvia.
I miss the trees, and so does the local finch population. The birches produced little cones full of seeds that the birdies loved.
You should divorce this turkey.
I am dubious that a professional arborist would say such a thing.
Might depend on how much spring snow you get to. The heavy wet stuff when trees are leafing out.
And if a tree was top-heavy (which I’m dubious about), surely you could prune enough branches to make it more balanced).
I concur, and in these days of rising temps, you will want that shade.
My WAG is that the power company will go underground with the lines before the trees fall down.
Yes.