>Chop, Chop
>When I heard the chainsaw outside, I knew whatever was going on couldn’t be good.
Across the street, a couple of guys were buzzing branches off one of two Bradford Pear trees in our neighbors’ front yard. But these weren”t just any Bradford Pears. In a subdivision filled with hundreds of hardwoods miraculously left standing by the developers, my neighbors’ Bradford Pears could be considered the king and queen of the group. Majestically tall and lush, blooming like mad every spring and turning a brilliant red every fall, they were absolutely stunning.
And so I watched in dismay as the branches fell, hoping I was just witnessing a really bad pruning job. But no. An hour or so later, a rope was attached to the beautiful Bradford (which had already sprouted buds in preparation for its stunning spring debut) and Baby and I watched through a window as it defeatedly toppled onto the street outside.
“Hubs,” I said breathlessly on the phone a few minutes later, “You won’t believe this. They cut down one of the Bradford Pears across the street.”
“What?” he asked. “Are you kidding?”
“No,” I replied. “I’m still in shock.”
“What about the other one?”
“It’s still there,” I said. We both sat in silence for a moment.
“Well, I guess I’d rather have our new neighbors across the street and one Bradford Pear than Earl and two Bradford Pears.”
“I know,” I said. “They probably had some great reason for cutting it down- I just can’t imagine what that is. At least they left the other one standing.”
A week went by and I began to get used to seeing the stark, sun-drenched front of the house across the street without the Bradford Pear to shield it. By Friday, I had almost forgotten about the incident- at least until the sound of a chainsaw again filled the air.
Oh. Hell. No.
I raced to the window. The guys were back, cutting branches off the other Bradford Pear. I wrung my hands. I paced. I mulled over my options. The only plan I could come up with involved me handcuffing myself (because all I had in the house to work with was a child’s set of police handcuffs) to the Bradford Pear and refusing to let them cut it down. I’d have to call the newspaper and TV stations first, of course- I could already imagine the headline…
But first, I called Hubs.
“They’re doing it again,” I whispered in a strangled voice.
“Huh?”
“They’re cutting down the other Bradford Pear! It’s inexcusable! Are they nuts?!“
“You need to calm down,” Hubs said. “They’re really nice people.”
“I’m not disputing that,” I said. “But they’re making a horrible mistake! I want to look out my window and see Bradford Pears! Not my neighbor putting on deoderant!”
I tried not to think of the floracide going on across the street, but a part of me died when that Bradford Pear came down. It just seemed so… wrong. Of course, Hubs thought I was totally overreacting- at least until he went to the gym yesterday.
“So, what do you think about the tragedy of Riverlake Manor?” a man asked him. It was one of our neighbors.
“What do you mean?” Hubs said.
“The Bradford Pears!” he said morosely. “I was on the verge of running out and begging them not to cut that second one down.”
“You need to talk to my wife,” Hubs said, shaking his head.
Of course, I still like my neighbors. I’m not into feuds and besides, they’re good people. But in a final, cruel twist of irony, I just learned that Friday? The day the last great tree came crashing down?
It was freaking Arbor Day.
>How sad! I live in a “new” neighborhood…we have hardly any trees at all…mostly the big pines that line the lake three blocks away. We’ve received over two feet of snow in the past couple of weeks, but I still have bare spots in my yard thanks to all the wind (and five foot drifts where the snow landed). Trees are important. Historically and environmentally. (I love your “newspaper”, btw.)
>Take some comfort in knowing that if they were that large enough to be the king and queen of the neighborhood trees, that those puppies were probably coming down of their own accord in the next big storm. Bradford Pears are notoriously unstable as they get big – as I was reminded dozens of times when my own beautifully placed Bradford Pear came down in a storm a few years ago.
>I am so allergic to Brandford Pear trees that if I drive by one in bloom (windows closed -air on) I have to stop and take my contacts out. Bring em down!
>I love the “newspaper” article. But whatever.
>Oh my. I’ve had new neighbors move in on both sides of me in the past few year. Both have brought in the hatchets and chain-saws. On one side, the previous owner had a lush & eclectic yard, with at least 4 different varieties of lilacs — stunning in appearance and aroma, along with several other interesting plants I wasn’t familiar with. She had a small pond too, with peaceful trickling water. That yard was her sanctuary. I remember the across-the-picket fence conversations about her plants — her babies. It’s all gone now. Every last bit of it. No more lilacs. No more pond. Nothing left.I know exactly what you mean — I was all set to chain myself to a white lilac bush at one point.(I love your newspaper article too! Boy, are you creative or what?!)
>Did you ever read the “Asterix and Obelix” comic books? My favorite character was Dogmatix, the little dog who howled inconsolably every time a tree came down. I get a little upset every time one of our neighbors cuts down a tree (the word “Forest” is in the name of our subdivision, for Pete’s sake!) but after losing two trees to ice storms this winter, I do understand the temptation to TAKE them down before they FALL down onto your house, car, kid, etc. However, in the summer I know I feel about a 10 degree difference when I step out of the shade of our trees and into one of the tiny sunny patches of our yard.
>Bradford Pears do come down during storms, it’s true, and we get some doozies. But the street I’m on is sheltered by a large hill and we’ve never had anything come down but a couple of branches.Allergies would make sense, too. And the smell of a Bradford Pear in bloom is admittedly noxious.But still! Gorgeous! And gone!
>I’m a bona fide treehugger, but I wouldn’t lament the destruction of any Bradford pear. I have thought about cutting down all five of them in my yard and the first sign I see of a split, they’re outta here. What MotherReader says is true; the average life expectancy of a Bradford pear is only about 15 years. And the smell! Yuck!
>After the 1998 tornado, we volunteered for ReLeaf Nashville and coordinated major replanting of hardwood trees throughout our neighborhood. We mapped and planted and mapped and planted and – you get the picture. Three fall seasons in a row. Two houses near us had older residents who didn’t request a tree, but wanted one on the day of planting so we gave them ours (and then went and paid for more trees for us). Both houses have since sold and BOTH new owners cut down OUR trees. Dammit. I feel your pain.
>Yeah, it feels horrible when beautiful trees come down, for whatever reason. We had a massive silver maple across the street that was a freaking HISTORIC MARKER (literally)! It was so big, the branches stretched all the way across the street, to entirely shade our entire home – probably at least 100 years old. One day I came home to fire engines and flashing lights – a single branch (more like a full tree, since it was easily 5 feet in circumference) had fallen onto our neighbors car, through her patio furniture, and took down power lines, which shorted and caused a small fire. The lovely, old tree was rotting from the inside. Over the next few weeks, city arbor crews came through and slowly, carefully, took the whole beautiful mega-tree down. I asked the city to preserve the stump so we could carve it into a bench – but apparently the people who house it was in front of were technically liable for any damages or injuries from the tree (or its remains, apparently). So it was ground into dust. I kept the historic marker sign, just because we loved that tree so very much. I feel your pain!
>Arbor Day? STOP IT. We’re cutting down our apple tree this year. *sigh* However, we’re waiting until after the spring bloom. We learned, last summer, that she has a disease and might not even bloom this spring but we’re giving it a go anyway. We’re planting a new one in her place but… we’re still sad.lol @ deodorant. 🙂
>ACK!! I feel your pain. We had to have one of our dogwoods come down this year.http://www.georgiabenders.com/albums2/album01/HPIM1295.sized.jpgThat. Hurt. Thank God it was the one on the end. And BTW, do you have any idea how expensive it is to replace a full-grown dogwood? More than we’ll get back in resale value!Maybe you could take up a collection in the neighborhood…
>Your post was so sad! I’m sorry for your…loss? lol
>I hate, hate, hate when people take trees down unnecessarily. I probably would have been in a newspaper article chaining myself for real.
>That’s really a bummer about the trees. When I was a kid, the city we lived in had a law that if you chopped down a tree unnecessarily, you had to plant four more. And they actually came around with tree plots they’d drawn the year before and asked for documentation as to WHY you were missing ONE tree and hadn’t planted another FOUR.Every city should do that. Where I grew up may have been suburban southern California – not too far from LA at that – but it was green and you couldn’t see or hear your neighbors for anything.Well, happy Arbor Day all the same. Maybe the ground will swallow them on Earth Day to pay ’em back?
>I so get this. I always cry when they chop down the big trees in our neighborhood. Such history and beauty gone in an instant.
>I would be totally heart broken over this. I’m sorry! I really don’t understand the logic of cutting down beautiful trees near the house.
>I am really truly sad at the loss of those two trees. Your reaction is totally understandable.
>I am a landscape architect and can tell you from tons of experience that the first thing a new home owner does is call the landscape design team. Doesn’t matter if it’s a perfectly beautiful garden and yard with established plantings…everyone feels the need to make their own mark. Kind of the human version of lifting a leg.So they’ve done it, left their scent on the place with the slaughtering of some pear trees. Just a thought but maybe they were having trouble growing grass. That’s the number one reason people remove trees…Americans are obsessed with lawns.
>There is no justice in this world.
>Ugh. That has been what has killed me most this winter. Ice storms have truly injured many of the stately trees in my neighborhood. Spare the trees darn it!!! I share your pain, I would have been liekly to chain myself to the tree…..
>That’s weird, because yesterday I walked by an old neighbor’s house and noticed the new owners cut down all her plants. I mused a bit about it and the underlaying sadness — the impermanance of things — on my blog:http://blogs.marinij.com/katwilder/2007/03/here_and_then_gone_1.html*sigh*And that’s how it goes …
>We just went through something similar. We live in the country with some woods. Some people bought the wooded property next to us. Then they brought in huge equipment and started *removing* the trees. Mind you, we are in the midst of flat, featureless farm fields. If they wanted empty land, they could have bought the acreage right next door.Woods are scarce here, and they chopped theirs down, then put them in giant piles to burn. Then they told us that they are going to plant trees. (?) More “desirable” trees. Which should attract — I’m not making this up — “more desirable wildlife”.I guess more desirable than the songbirds, owls, hawks, blue herons, fox, coyote, racoons, skunks, wild turkey, pheasant, rabbits, turtles, red squirrels, deer, and other wildlife that already occupied those woods?
>I rec’d yr link thru Blogher…I’m not sure what’s more astonishing- your tale or the list of people in your life from your side bar! And I have trouble fitting in walks with the dog and blogging…wow.You Go Girl!
>I know, I am commenting almost a year after you posted this, but I just got back to reading your archives, and I had to comment on this one. Our neighbors across the street had a beautiful kwanzan cherry tree that they chopped down for no apparant reason. I was so upset (I may have even shed a tear or two). I loved that tree! It was gorgeous, no matter what the season. I still pass by the sad little stump and feel a surge of anger for its untimely end. Anyway, I ended up planting my own cherry tree directly across the street from where theirs was.
>Hi, I can totally relate to the sadness and compasion for the Bradford Pear trees. My son and I are both heart broken today because we had to cut down a couple of trees in our yard. We do get attached easily but I never knew we were ‘tree-huggers’. Wow! Not the worst thing to be I imagine. Well, One of the trees was a 30 ft maple merely two feet away from the house. It was beginning to rip up the roof and the roots were burrowing along side and under the foundation. This one was not too much of a heart break to see go since it made sense to save our house from emminant damage. The one that broke our heart is the big beautiful Bradford Pear of our backyard. Our yard is pretty small and is filled with many huge overgrown bushes, three huge pine trees, as well as two crate myrtles. We have always had far more trees than our neighbors for such a small space. Also we have a line of tall 35 ft fir type trees separating our property from the smaller town homes behind us. I never realized just how deep our love for nature and trees ran until today. Last night I hardly slept and my son cried when he came home from school and saw it gone. I had to talk with him for 3 hours about this. I know that both of the neighbors to either side of us lost their Bradford Pears when they frosted over and split down the middle but I just wanted to keep it anyway and obviously so did he. It was growing so incredibly fast and was at least 35 ft tall and was growing into the firs. I just kept wishing it would slow down. I also noticed what seemed to look like a slight separation in the middle of the tree (I guess because it was shooting up so high and had such a tiny trunk). It wasn’t too noticable but it was enough to pray that the frost wouldn’t get it this year. Tonight I have also read on-line that they only live about 25-30 yrs (that means it was in midlife or maybe later). I didn’t even know that trees died! My main concern was that if it split and fell through the line of firs that it might destroy the small elderly couples town home behind us or that it could jeopardise our children’s safty. We have another beautiful Bradford in the front yard and I want despritely to keep it forever. I’m trying to figure out the best method for having it trimmed. I wonder how I can keep it looking pretty but also to a smaller size so that it can live on. It is about 30ft tall already. I don’t like that everyone is cutting down all the trees everywhere. I grew up in the 70’s and remember playing in them and having so many trees and fresh air around. I want this for our kids future. One day I hope to buy acreage and I will definitely keep and plant many many trees. They are such beautiful creatures. Sorry I was rambling. I want you to know that there are plenty that understand your emotion. It’s hard to make practical decisions for me or to even accept a wise one when it affects matters of the heart. Like I told my son we can plant another strong tree somewhere in the country and that our Bradford surely sent many seeds out into the air to create little baby trees somewhere around our neighborhood. Thanks for being a caring person.
>I am so sorry to read about the beautiful trees being chopped down! At my crappy condo, the association has chopped down a beautiful tall willow tree that was in perfect health..all so that incoming visitors would see the front of the main building after proposing some grandiose remodeling project that never happened! Then they went around “pruning” ornamental crabapples down to nubs. They just chopped down our crabapple completely to the ground in front of our balcony so they can start “balcony repairs”….which we still haven’t been briefed on or anything. I hate this place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>I got to tell you and I love all trees generally, but let them be natives! Many people plant bradford pear for the spring early flowers. They are the earliest! But they bear no fruit! It’s all pollen that comes off of them and it is intense, because poor trees, they are trying to pollinate a female flower and its a no go! The entire tree bears male flowers. Stupid idea of the USDA’s, really. The pollen has significant health hazards. In our area in Georgia it is beyond just stuffy nose, people get body aches, rashes. I get stomach problems. These trees really need to go, and we need our natives back. Bradford pears only allow grass to grow around them, and their suckers grow as fast as grass. I can understand very very well why your neighbor took them out. Their shade is minimal and they live at best, 25 years. Get oaks in there and you WILL have genuine beauty.See this link for an informative discussion.Best, Vhttp://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/191/