The distressed tree is gone

[elizilla]

Two years ago I wrote about a street tree that was dead, and how the city told us it wasn't dead it was distressed, and also we can't plant a tree in that spot because it is a ditch! (Never mind that they planted it there themselves.)

Well, they were right about the difference between dead and distressed - sometime around late July 2014, that tree actually did leaf out. But in 2015 it never leafed out at all, and by this winter the bark was spalling off. After a year in distress, it was truly dead.

So this winter when the street tree program applications came out, we applied for one, and paid the fee. And apparently when the request comes as part of a batch of 100 trees to install all over town, the public works people don't fuss about ditches. Our application was approved, our check was cashed, and this morning the distressed/dead tree was removed and its stump was ground. The new tree should be installed by the end of the week. Hopefully it will thrive a bit better than the old one.

Comments

[greyhat.livejournal.com]

that'll be nice. I had hopes that it would leaf out last year, but it was just sad to look at. Almost anything will be better. Too bad you can't make requests.

[elizilla]

Well, they do ask you to rank their five chosen tree species in order of preference. I don't know how much attention they pay to the homeowner's rankings.

Given my druthers I'd pay extra for a flowering crab apple or other ornamental, since there's no sidewalk there to get covered in crushed crab apples. But the choices were all things like elms and maples.

[foms.livejournal.com]

A bit of a tangent: There seems to be a newish thing of carving dead tree trunks. Generally, it's only when the tree in question was a fairly thick one. Instead of cutting it off at or near ground-level, it's cut off at about the level of the first major branches and, sometimes, the bark removed. I've seen a few, around town, here. Interesting shapes or messages carved into the wood. I keep meaning to make a special trip to each to take photos.

[elizilla]

I have seen those! They are fun. I've heard that people carve them with chainsaws.