Verticillium Wilt Sucks

Today, very sadly, is the last day that our enormous Norway maple tree will stand as a sentry in front of our house.  As many maples in our area do, this tree contracted a fungal infection called Verticillium wilt and has been slowly dying for the last decade.  The previous owner of our home was so attached to this magnificent tree that he had the four largest branches cabled together to extend the life of this beauty a little longer.

But, based on the opinions of three different tree experts, the structural integrity of the tree is now severely compromised, and she must come down before the wind takes her down. So, today, our tree is getting cut down. We will be saving branches to burn next winter.  And, we're also saving a giant slice of her 154" diameter trunk to count the tree rings and maybe even create a little table from so she can stay with us a little longer.

As my parents can attest, I grow quite attached to trees. I always have.  So, I today feel like I am losing a friend by my own hand.  Perhaps this sounds a little melodramatic, and maybe it even is, but I've enjoyed having the majestic spread of this trees canopy welcome me home every day.  I enjoyed watching woodpeckers climb up her branches. I loved hearing the birds sing from her branches.  And, I enjoyed listening to the wind whistle through her leaves. 

Goodbye old friend.  The chainsaws have started, and so have my tears.

Rotted Main Trunk

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold,

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost