The tree was 102 years old and roughly 70 feet high. Borough Council, following the Shade Tree Commission's having hired experts to assess the health of the tree, determined it was safest to have it cut down, the same recommendation of the experts.
Interestingly, the photo the Express-Times ran (which is there's not mine so I didn't lift it) shows a pile of logs from the tree. In my non-expert eyes, the log clearly supports the decision that the tree was dying. The entire center was rotted to within a few inches of the outside edge.
Regarding the 'taste' of having done so on Earth Day, I can see this in three ways.
- First, poor taste because in the idealistic Earth Day world nothing in the environment would ever die if it weren't for people, and here the Borough is proving it.
- Second, good taste because it shows that the Borough is being a good steward of the environment on its properties by first having planted it, then taking good care of it, and now creating a new space to plant a new tree.
- Third, is Earth Day really sacred? Earth Day was originated by environmental groups to support their causes and its been co-opted by corporate America to sell consumers products and services under the "Green" banner.
5 comments:
I think the fact that it was done on "Earth Day" is irrelevant. Earth Day is largely an unrecognized day. These tree guys are busy and have work to. You can't expect them to work a large project like this around some day that a few people consider special. If it wasn't the beech tree that they took down yesterday it would have been some other tree. Haggling over a specific day may have set the razing of this tree back weeks if the schedules didn't align correctly.
That being said, it is sad to see the tree go. Interestingly, Nancy Wisser just posted a blog about another old beech tree in Nazareth on weirdnazareth.blogspot.com that I was not aware of...
It would be nice to plant a tree sapling there on Memorial day or even Nazareth day to honor all the Nazareth Veterans both living and long gone. I feel sure it would be a wonderful thing. Thanks Henry Schaadt
When I pulled into the parking lot behind the Moravian church, I had a feeling that they were starting to work on the tree. My initial thought was that it was ironic for them to be taking down the tree on Earth Day. It turned out, however, to be a great teaching moment for my preschool class. We talked about the theory that the tree was sick because of all of the carving in its bark, about how the bark helps to protect the tree the way our skin protects us. We talked about respecting nature by not carving on trees. One of the children said, "Yeah, you should just carve pumpkins, huh?" so we adopted the slogan: "Carve pumpkins, not trees!" Maybe next year, the Boro could have a pumpkin-carving contest in the circle?? We culminated all the talking with a walk up the street to watch from the corner as they cut the upper branches from the tree. The kids loved it when they got a big wave from the man in the "cherry picker," and they thought the whole experience was "awesome." What a great spur-of-moment lesson -- couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried!
that's not rot you are looking at. the darker wood is the heart-wood. contains more water. i have a couple pieces from the tree. believe me, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.
Matt is right , to a degree. The tree "would have outlived us all". It had some rot at the base but it was solid even at the rotted part. The tree was solid and strong. People panicked at the report the arborist gave and opted to make what turned out to be a grave mistake..... to cut the tree down. Trimmers have hands on experience and one of them told me if it was his tree he NEVER would have taken it down! "An old strong tree like this?" He said it was solid and strong and needed only to be trimmed and maintained. Unfortunatly the mentality of the council was to respond to the arborist's reports with fear. Too late and so sad that such a poor decision was made so quickly that our town lost a "historic monument". Those of us who watched the tree come down saw that the strong old Beech was unjustly sentenced to death.
The justification was that it was a liability and could fall on someone. So can a perfectly healthy young tree. STUFF happens. Should we not open our swimming pool because someone could drown or not drive cars because someone could get killed? ETC!!!
Let's not let this unfortunate mistake become the example of action for future decisions of this nature.
Get over your fears. Get smart. STUFF happens.
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