It is sad to see any tree go. But I really don't get too sentimental about Eucalyptus in the California landscape. There are so many reasons they shouldn't be planted or kept on. The fire danger, their immense size that is so out of place in the natural landscape, the displacement of native plants and habitats...
Anonymous said…
I have to go with Michelle on this one, but it's still hard to let go of a mature tree of that scale.
I was a Blake Estate in Kensington a few years ago eating lunch on the grass with a group of people, when a groundsmen came out and yelled at us to move, because we were sitting too close to a Eucalyptus whose branches might come crashing down on us at any moment. Maybe a better strategy would have been to just remove the tree?
It's hard to see a big tree go--even when diseased or dangerous. I went out and talked to our huge Ponderosa Pine the night before it met its end. Oh dear, now I sound like Prince Charles.
But that pine would have been healthy if a so-called expert hadn't topped it years before. The former owner of our house cried when she heard we had to take it down.
DP - I'm sorry for your Ponderosa Pine tree, and I totally understand your feeling. I also stood with the Euc the night before and patted it and told it I was sorry but it had to go. One thing that made me sad was when I noticed the patch of bark where our old horse used to rub his itchy rump. So I was revisiting that sad time too, last year, when he was no longer able to stand comfortably and we had to do the kind thing.
Logic was all on the side of taking out the tree for sure. Still, I had to keep telling myself, "It's just a big vegetable. It's just a big vegetable."
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I was a Blake Estate in Kensington a few years ago eating lunch on the grass with a group of people, when a groundsmen came out and yelled at us to move, because we were sitting too close to a Eucalyptus whose branches might come crashing down on us at any moment. Maybe a better strategy would have been to just remove the tree?
But that pine would have been healthy if a so-called expert hadn't topped it years before. The former owner of our house cried when she heard we had to take it down.
Logic was all on the side of taking out the tree for sure. Still, I had to keep telling myself, "It's just a big vegetable. It's just a big vegetable."
We are so silly.