Lately I've been thinking about how beautiful that tree was when it was living in our front yard. The children loved to play around the awesome mystical monster, most of our family photos were always taken around it. The birds loved it, we often would see a family of racoons climbing around it at night. It must of had thousands of spiders and bugs living in it. Sometimes I start to feel guilty that I removed Gods beautiful creation.
The tree was dying a rapid death, ten years ago it was still a healthy looking tree. You'd never guess it was completely hollow right to the top. It wasn't until the leaves started falling before they were to full size that I realized something had to be done. So I had it topped for the second time, I thought I might give it another chance to survive for a few more years.
Where the big old tree was topped the thickness of the wood in some areas of the ring was less than an inch. The thought that there was at one time ten inch branches coming off that thickness of wood is what really scared me. The splalted wood inside the green wood certainly wasn't offering any mechanical support. It got to a point where you could see the house across the street right through the base of the tree. It would only ever get worse.
So, there was two options to chose from. 1. Leave it there, let it rot the rest of the way through. or 2. Remove it.
The first option would feed birds and bugs for many years to come. If it wasn't for the fact that I have another Maple tree in my back yard that is twice the size of this one, I may have made this choice. Not to mention the two Dogwood trees that were being choked out by the big maple in the middle. Combined with the fact that I would be fighting the mess for the rest of my life, it was evident that the other choice was the best.
If a tree like that has to be removed, there are options on how to go about that.
It never occured to me to do anything else, I was saving this beautful creation.
Where it will end up is beyond me at this point. Any ideas?
