Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Those Old Oak Trees







I am snuggled up in my office with a hot cup of tea. White fluffy clouds are hanging in the beautiful blue sky but it is all an illusion. You see, it is freezing outside and a winter wonderland. Snow covers the ground and still sits on the trees and bushes. I keep looking out the window staring at the oak trees and reflecting on their history.

Pocahontas might not have roamed among my oak trees but the children from a Native American tribe lived and played here. My house is located on an oak savanna which was the site of a Native American encampment 1,000’s of years ago. Archaeologists and students excavated artifact from this oak savanna finding remains from life of this area earliest visitors. Artifacts they found included: stone knives, spears, arrows and tools for food preparations and to shape bone and wood. They also found fire-cracked rock from cooking and heating.

Sadly, the big oaks closest to my house and drive were hurt during the building of my house. The arborist I consulted told me it takes very little to hurt an oak and about seven years for it to die. In the front, two trees had grown together to reach over 70 feet high. The limbs and branches spanned the front yard. The tree in the back was even bigger; measuring over 54 inches around, taking the prize of the largest tree my crew had ever taken down.

After careful planning, the tree removal company and the tree harvester showed up with machines and men to start the three day event. It was an amazing process and I couldn't keep my camera put away!

It broke my heart to watch over 200 years of history disappear branch by branch but made me happy knowing that the tree has been harvested and will live on. Some of the wood went to the wood chips piles to be put back into the earth, some went for fire wood to sustain others on cold nights and what the crew could save went to Horigan’s Urban Forest Products. They take sections of the tree, cut it, dry it, prepare it for customers to turn it into furniture, wood floors, etc. Already, some of the pieces from our tree was cut and prepared for a popular coffee house for it’s tables. Urban renewal is the way to go!! Think about it for your next project!!! (No, I am not being paid to advertise – it is just a great company making the right choice to reuse our natural resources) www.horiganufp.com

I look out and miss those big old oak trees. The snowy view just isn’t the same.

Enjoy the pictures. It was a cool process!