by Kay Hafner

When we bought our house in �92, one of the prime selling points of the young subdivision was the number of trees left by the developer. Instead of bulldozing every tree in sight, then planting junior-size, greenhouse-grown replacements, generous borders surrounded the lots and mature trees dotted the yards. It gave a warm, anti-suburban feel to the neighborhood and made the development seem more established than others going up at the same time.

Like most of the other homes, the spec house we bought had generous wooded buffers either side, plus a deep border that extended beyond our property line in the back. Our circular driveway wrapped around two oaks near the road. These large, stately trees were like two silent guards on permanent patrol. In fact, they did protect us in a way: their leaves shaded and sheltered the house�s western exposure from the summer sun, a big benefit since we don�t have central air conditioning.

A few years ago, carpenter ants infested one of the trees. These insects are fascinating in how they tunnel and burrow, but so destructive they should be called demolition ants. We stopped them in time to prevent major damage to the house, but the tree�s base was weakened by their occupation. We didn�t realize how much damage had been done until later.

Meanwhile, the other oak started losing limbs. Dead branches, with no leaves but lots of dead weight, would fall during thunderstorms or other heavy winds. They landed with a heavy thud on the driveway and splintered upon impact.

We knew there had been some damage to some trees during the house-building process�here and there evidence of encounters with heavy machinery could be found, mostly a ding or two in the trunks along with snapped off lower branches. We�ll never know how much these encounters had to do with the oaks� declining health. However, as one expert pointed out later, such former forest trees are already at a disadvantage when forced to stand alone by themselves. It adds insult to injury when asphalt is laid over the open ground above their roots.

A month or so ago, after a storm came through and sent many other trees in town to the ground, my husband noticed that the oak closest to the road had started to split. He�d predicted years ago that we�d eventually have to take them down, but my wishful thinking and the fact that they provided shade had earned them several reprieves. Until now.

I was home when the cutting crew came and grabbed the camcorder to capture the event. We�d had other trees taken down, some for landscaping and others for safety, but this was different from what I expected. First, one man positioned a crane with a cable and hook parallel to the tree. Then a man with a chain saw attached to his utility belt shimmied up the tree, placed a chain around an upper section and secured the hook under the chain. He then went back down a bit and revved up the chain saw. Once the sawed section stopped swinging, it dangled a moment on the cable before the crane operator maneuvered it to the ground. Other chain-saw wielding men cut it into smaller chunks, much of it into logs that will be used in our fireplace next winter.

When it came time to dispose of the base of the trunks and another large section of the insect-infested tree that couldn�t be saved, a different truck was brought in. It had a claw that could open wide and grasp onto the wood. When these three pieces were gone, they would send a crew back to grind down the stumps.

I�d run out of videotape but loaded some film in my camera for this last stage. When the claw tried to grab onto the diseased trunk, it crumbled into several sickly, dark and rotten pieces. I then realized how lucky we were that it never simply toppled over.

A handful of smaller oaks still remain in the center island of our front yard. We hope to add a magnolia and perhaps some type of fast-growing shade tree to take the place of the open space there. We love the beauty and shade of trees, and as long as small trees grow into big ones our fingers will continue to walk through the tree removal section of the yellow pages. We probably won�t ever wait so long before making a decision to take one down again.