But spruce bark beetles killed the biggest spruce of them all, shown above on the left side at the end of the drive.
Two more birch trees, just on the other side of the front stairs, were dying and had lost their tops in the recent past.
It makes me sad when a big tree dies, and the big spruce had a trunk the diameter of a trash can lid.
So this happened an hour ago:
There's a lot more light on that side of the yard, now, but the yard seems rather bare. Oh, well ... everything changes all the time.
8 comments:
I've had to do the same recently. Big trees that had rotted out cores and were slanting towards the house rather than away. Makes me sad, but it's them or me.
This has happened at The Ranch from time to time. Yes, it is sad - but barring the elimination of beetles, likely to happen.
Can you at least use it for firewood? It saddens me when you have to lose a tree. Kinda like losing a good dog.
We're going to have our ash tree "inoculated" against some wood-boring beetle that's making it's way up here. It started in the Denver/Boulder area with a pallet made of infected wood from, you guessed it, CHINA!
PH - you're right. When it comes down to it, there's not really a decision needing to be made: it makes itself.
TB - unfortunately, you're spot on.
drjim - the wood from the spruce was infected with beetles & needed to be disposed quickly, so into the shredder it went. The Northern birch trees are so light, they don't burn worth a darn, but put of LOTS of ash. That's a bad thing, here in the forest.
Sorry to hear about your escapade; I hope you can have it treated in time. The season for that, here, is already expired.
The "Tree Guy" is supposed to be here next week...
Our church has lost all its decorative ash trees on the property due to a borer. And apparently the only safe thing to do with the wood is burn it immediately.
Sad to see trees coming to an end.
I know how you feel. Doesn't matter how many trees you have.
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