My forest

One of the reasons I love our property is because we have so many trees on it. We have several big ones in the back, and three closer to the house. Near the house we have a cherry, birch, and 'The Monster' as the arborist called it. The Monster needs to be thinned... badly.

This past week my mom and I were walking through the back end of our property, when she noticed one of smaller trees was majorly leaning towards my neighbors shed. Upon closer inspection, you can see a mound of dirt around the base where the roots are near the surface. Must have been that bad storm we had several weeks back. Darn, guess that one needs to be cut down.

I called several, about 7, tree specialists/arborists, 3 promised to come and give me an estimate, only one showed up. He was a real talker, told me all about trees, how they grow, why this and that happens, how people don't take care of their trees, how his house & shop were broken into, his brand new truck stolen, a piston went out on his best chipper... you get the picture. Since he was so talkative, I thought I'd ask about thinning The Monster. Bill (the arborist) was upset! Someone had just chopped The Monster years ago, just 'topped it', which has apparently ruined the look of this beautiful old tree. He said it was going to be a pain to trim/thin it, and keep it beautiful. He recommended only cutting 25% at a time, and starting at the bottom, it would cost about $1,000 for each trimming/thinning... WHAT??? Gulp! That was hard to swallow. I was informed it would be cheaper to take The Monster down. NO WAY! I love The Monster, besides, it is so old, and has been around so long, what gives me the right? Besides, it provides us with wonderful shade in the summer, beautiful yellow leaves in the fall, and lots of leaves to rake up. We make huge piles of yellow leaves, Noah jumps in them, then we compost what we have room for. It's great fun and exercise. I will do what I can to save The Monster for future generations.