We recently had a conundrum in our house that involved rational, emotional and even some moral thinking. We spent weeks debating and assessing the topic before we finally arrived at a decision. A decision which ensured, like all good compromises, that everyone was not happy with the result.
We cut down a tree in our backyard.
When our house was built in 2004 it came with plantings and landscaping that included two trees. In addition, there were original trees left in the back yard on the property. Both of the new trees were planted on the east side of the house – one in the front corner and one in the back corner. The one in the back corner was a river birch.
River birches are known as fast growing trees, so by the time we bought the house eight years after it was built, the river birch was already good size. Over the course of the last decade it continued to grow to its mature height and spread of 60 to 70 feet.
Unfortunately, that height and spread was exacerbated because the tree had been trimmed early on into three main trunks instead of just one single trunk. So, the three trunks, which were now large themselves, were sending one trunk over our backyard, which was good for backyard shade. But, the other two trunks were spreading one over our house, and one toward and over our neighbor’s house.
The trunk over our house became annoying because it dropped massive quantities of leaves into our downspout, regularly clogging it up and necessitating that several times a year I climb 20-plus feet on a ladder to clean them out. And yes, we had tried gutter guards, but the leaves just piled on top of them, so I still had to make the climb. A climb and activity I looked forward to less and less each year.
The trunk growing toward our neighbor’s house just became a mental concern for me though, because our section of town does get windy and several nearby trees, as well as power poles, have been uprooted during storms over the years. Being pragmatic – or pessimistic depending on your viewpoint – the possibility of that large trunk breaking off and crashing into our neighbor’s house was mentally taxing for me.
All of these issues were brought to a head when we decided earlier this year to put a roof over our back porch. Part of the river birch was going to be in the way of that roof, and also hinder its construction. Which meant it either needed to be trimmed or removed.
An important part of this conundrum is that my wife is a very spiritual person, and has a deep and abiding love and connection with nature. And trees are a very significant part of that natural connection. It is common during our hikes for her to stop and just put her hand on a tree and “ground” herself.
Certainly she can tell you the ecological benefits that trees provide for us. How they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and slow its buildup in our atmosphere. And how older larger trees store a lot more carbon dioxide, so it’s important that we conserve old-growth trees. Plus, how trees store and filter more than half of the water supply in the United States.
But more importantly for her are the less tangible natural and spiritual benefits of trees. How spending time in the woods helps you feel connected to the earth. How walking in parks and forests makes you less anxious and depressed. How having trees around you can improve health conditions that are linked to heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer, and lower rates of obesity. We even nicknamed one of our cars “Grandmother Willow” after the ancient and wise tree in the Disney movie “Pocahontas.”
And in something that recently hit home for us, how hospital patients with windows looking out on trees healed faster, needed less pain medication and had fewer postsurgical complications than patients who instead saw a brick wall. A natural belief we appreciated when I spent a week in a hospital in Philadelphia two months ago and luckily got a room with a great view of a garden area with several trees.
As a final note of how deeply my wife is connected to trees, several years ago when the emerald ash borer attacked every ash tree in our neighborhood, she was adamant about doing everything we could to save the two in front of our house. We even went so far as to request a “stay of execution” for one more season just in case they were able to survive. Sadly, they did not, but at least we felt as if we had given them every chance.
So, when the need to do something with the river birch arose, whether we trimmed or removed was clearly a very difficult decision. It didn’t help that I was recovering from surgery and my wife was still dealing with the trauma associated with that. We consulted a few tree services in the area, got their opinions and suggestions on the topic, and learned that the tree was starting to show signs of a nutritional deficiency. In the end, as I said at the beginning of this column, we decided to have it removed.
However, during removal we discovered that the tree was already starting to die inside, which eased the pain of the decision a bit, as it would have needed to be cut down anyway.
And, taking a cue from Penn State, which turned the elm yellows disease infestation of the elm trees on campus into a positive by using the wood to make furniture, art, frames and keepsakes, we are having some of the wood from the tree made into household tree decorations by a local artisan.
Now when we look out from our family room windows we no longer see this giant shade tree dominating our view. However, the roof is up over our back porch and that creates its own shade and “frames” the view of our neighborhood in a new and different way. Plus, we have been spending time investigating what kind of tree or trees we’ll plant along that edge of our yard – just further away from the house and with a smaller mature size!
Lastly we’ll embark on a similar conundrum later this week when we try to decide how to handle the Christmas tree topic. My wife’s goal is to convince the rest of us to get a live tree we can plant outside after we use it for the holidays. We’ll see what happens.
Happy Thanksgiving!
