Do You Fear Trees?

A recent article in the New York Times suggested that the normally “tree-loving” residents of New England (which includes Connecticut of course) have come to fear the trees more than to adore them.

The article focused on the trials of Springfield Massachusetts which had, in one year, a tornado, a microburst and the storm in October 2011 which brought down numerous trees (Sandy didn’t affect inland Springfield very much–but they did have a horrific gas explosion Thanksgiving weekend, causing the city to wonder if it was cursed).

Needless to say, in the 3 weather events, the trees got decimated.  I can attest to that, having driven by Springfield right after the tornado–and of course, having extensive tree damage from what some in Connecticut were calling “Arborgedden,” after the October 2011 snows.

I have a neighbor who has made it her mission to take down almost every tree on her property.  She started this long before October 2011 and she continues it to this day.  There are maybe only 2 mature trees left on her property–so every time she has damage from one of them, she blames it on our trees.  It was tough to do when her own tree fell on the roof of her sun porch, however, during the October 2011 storm.

With events like that, I can see why she’d be a bit frightened of her trees–but she also complains that her backyard is hotter than blazes in the summertime–as it would be without mature trees to shade it.

When some of our trees fell, or were topped by that October 2011 storm, I lamented that their cooling shade would be missed in the summer.  I tried to make lemonade from the lemons, thinking that I would have more sun in which to grow vegetables.

Despite the storm, however, most of the trees leafed out fully–some putting on much larger leaves because of their damage.  It certainly didn’t seem as if we had anymore sun–and that’s just fine.  I’ve grown used to living with our trees and would miss them if they were gone.

And, as an aside, although we did have several major large limbs that came down from our trees in the storm in 2011, they fell across the driveway.  We had to chainsaw them out of the way before we could snow-blow the foot of snow that had fallen–but that was the extent of the damage.  Even the oak limbs that fell on the garage roof didn’t damage it, thankfully (but boy were they an issue to remove!)

So I’m still good with my trees, unlike my neighbor.  I certainly hope most New Englanders share my sentiments–or we’ll start looking like a prairie!

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