Soulless Bastards

[MoonCat]

There's a church on the end of my block. Used to be Catholic, got closed by the diocese as apparently 400+ congregation and completely solvent isn't enough to keep it open. Whatever.

Another church that's expanding bought it. Remodeled inside, set up afterschool programs, yada yada. Fine. I don't care about their denomination.

In the churchyard they had a line of tall spruce trees. 6 or 7, beautiful, sweet-smelling trees.

Today they had someone CHOP THEM ALL DOWN.

Robins and cardinals and sparrows nested in them, squirrels lived among them, they gave shade and beauty and soul to that end of the street. I walked past them every day to the bus stop, I could smell them when it rained, that lovely, green, soothing scent of living tree. They made a windbreak, improved the property value, made my heart lift no matter how tired I was when I walked by. Sometimes I stopped to watch the birds fly in and out, or just to breathe in that beautiful scent.

Now it's a long, dead patch of sawdust attached to a swath of grass.

Sometimes I really hate people.

[BookstoreEscapee]

That's sad.

My parents used to have a big magnolia tree in their front yard; I loved that tree. They had to have it taken down (it had a hole working its way through the trunk just a couple inches from the ground and my dad had been monitoring it for a year or two before he decided it had to go before a bad storm knocked it over into the house). I watched from my bedroom window as they cut it apart and I wanted to cry (it smelled really good, though).

[Amina516]

....why? Thats sad.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

This is one for your trees.

Why yes.
I'm a tree hugger.

[MoonCat]

This is one for your trees.

Why yes.
I'm a tree hugger.

Oh RK, thank you so much! That's perfect! It made me cry which is good because I was so angry I just couldn't get it out.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

That song makes me cry every time I hear it. That's not why I shared it with you, I wasn't trying to make you cry. (though I knew you would).

I shared it with you because you clearly "get it." And the song identifies that feeling so well.

[Redbeard]

house I was renting, when I looked it over had this incredible vine covered fence. The day before I moved in, the lardlord cut it all down, leaving thck stumps on the ground and a chain link fance 4 feet from the windowed side doors leading from the living room.
Never could figure out why people hate green growing things so much

[RecoveringKinkoid]

One of my aunts cut down a gorgeous stand of established canna lillies because it "looked like a place a snake might hide."

I sincerely wish I was shitting you.

I should mention this person comes from a part of my family that would pour asphalt on the entire dry surface of the earth and put a dock over the rest if they could.

I should also mention this person is such a raging pessimist she literally sends other family members running for a hiding place. I guess beautiful things don't really mesh too well with your world view when everything is a negative.

Heck, I had to declare war on the Japanese wisteria growing on my property and I am on a campaign to eradicate it all with extreme prejudice. The stuff can collapse a fence, kill trees, and tear posts off your deck. All which it has done to my property. I cannot bring myself to harm it in the spring. It's just too beautiful. No, have to force myself to attack it after it's bloomed and is starting to look seedy, because the look and smell of it in spring so mesmerizes me I almost forget that a dead pine tree costs around four hundred bucks to remove. (google it if you don't know what it looks like in bloom).

Before you all call me a heartless bastard, I've kept two "trees" of it where I can control it. But I have to tell you, I don't know why kudzu has a rep and wisteria does not. It grows as fast. All I'm doing is slowing it down.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

I too mourn for perfectly good plants getting killed like that. Or heck, even in natural disasters.
Kink: kill it with fire ^tm
Death to all Loosestrife. (that's the 'pretty' invasive species that I see the most in my area. Razzumfrazzum )

[AdminAssistant]

My grandmother loved hollyhocks and had many in her yard/around her house. Pretty much as soon as she passed away, my mother and aunts went to town killing, "those damn ugly plants." I always thought they were pretty.

18 years ago we moved into our new double-wide. It was on ground that the year before had been cotton fields, so it took a pretty long while to get even grass to grow on it. Finally, they were able to get a pecan tree to start growing. A few years ago, it started producing nuts. Two years later....ice storm. The tree split right down the middle. It's still alive, but we probably won't have any more pecans for a long time.

[Antisocial_Worker]

I cannot bring myself to harm it in the spring. It's just too beautiful. No, have to force myself to attack it after it's bloomed and is starting to look seedy, because the look and smell of it in spring so mesmerizes me I almost forget that a dead pine tree costs around four hundred bucks to remove. (google it if you don't know what it looks like in bloom).

I despise with all my soul the Bradford pear tree. It's basically a flowering weed, it's totally unsuited to the climate here, and it has a tendency to either split or drop huge sections of branches at the slightest touch -- which, because it snows here with regularity, means those trees are getting smacked around every winter.

For whatever reason back in the 70's and 80's, my city planted dozens all over downtown. While it's a miracle they survived this long, it was time for them to come down and the city was planning to cut them down and replant with more appropriate urban species. However, one local activist (we're lousy with activists) got wind of this plan and chained herself to one of the largest Bradford pears, right by the doors of a fancy hotel so as to be seen by all the tourists coming and going.

She eventually managed to get the city to agree not to cut them until after they'd finished blooming. Everyone, myself included, can appreciate the sight of a blooming Bradford pear despite that awful smell they give off. I think the city should have used a little more sense and cut them down during the winter.

[morgana]

On the river bluffs outside my home town, there used to be a stand of lilac that was there when the first settlers came, in 1857. Some of the boles were thicker than my waist and probably 15 feet tall. In spring, you could smell that wonderful scent for *miles*.

I planned from my childhood that the center of that lilac stand was where I would get married.

I didn't. I say "used to be" because the lilacs aren't there anymore. The gas company's pipeline bridge over the Missouri River couldn't possibly be built one bluff over. Of course not. It had to go *right* fucking *there*.

Bastards.

[BlaqueKatt]

Today they had someone CHOP THEM ALL DOWN.<snip>Sometimes I really hate people.

trees can look somewhat healthy and be harboring disease, that if not eradicated can spread to other trees. A very common one for spruce trees is Cytospora canker, it's an untreatable fungus that grows under the bark, there is nothing that can stop it and it will eventually kill the tree and as long as the tree is living the fungus spores will infect other trees, signs are bottom branches dying off(yup they are supposed to have branches all the way to the ground, if they don't they are infected and should be removed)

[Jester]

Today they had someone CHOP THEM ALL DOWN.

Now it's a long, dead patch of sawdust attached to a swath of grass.

Just out of curiousity, what was their reasoning for doing this?

[MoonCat]

Just out of curiousity, what was their reasoning for doing this?

I don't know. I was planning to write to them to express my disappointment but I had to wait until (a) surgery was over & I felt up to it and (b) I could do it politely. Of course they don't have to give a crap, because I don't belong to their church, but it would be interesting to see if I get an answer.

As far as disease, I realize that trees can be sick & not show it. These trees stood in a line along a chain link fence. There were no other trees next to them or close enough to touch them. They survived a freak snowstorm we had in the fall of '06 that destroyed 10,000 trees in the city overall; they had not dropped any limbs recently nor shown any sign of toppling over. It seems to me that if they were sick, they could have made an effort to treat the disease first. You can always chop something down; you can't put it back up if it turns out you made a bad decision.