Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky

[greygirlbeast]

One part of the source of this soulsickness, only one part but one significant part — the senseless murder of another tree in our neighborhood, a few blocks south of here and on the other side of Freedom Park. A strong and healthy tree. An oak that was probably planted long before my mother was born, and yesterday two yellow utility trucks showed up. I first noticed them when we took our walk, but I thought it was only the power company come to trim a few limbs away from the power lines. Later I learned that no, the whole tree was being taken down. I have yet to receive any clear explanation as to why. It is an immense and beautiful tree, a tree that has given me great comfort on occasion, a tree I have spent time with. Spooky and I have, in the past, marveled how the tree is it's own little ecosystem, providing a home not only for various animals (squirrels and birds, etc.), but also a wide variety of epiphytic plant life, including mosses, lichens, and ferns. It's magnificent gnarled roots create tiny pools when there is rain, and plants sprout around the pools.

My suspicion is that this action is being taken at the request of a new homeowner, as the tree is located in front of a house that was recently sold. And we have so many suburbanites moving in, and they want lawns — not tree-lined streets, and so the chainsaws come. I have listened all day to the goddamned chainsaws. The air outside smells of exhaust and sawdust. At this point, most of the limbs, which provided so much shade in summer, have been amputated and mostly just the towering, mutilated trunk remains. I suppose it will come down tomorrow.

Last night, we went out and lit a candle at the base of the tree, and I lit another on our altar. I laid my hands on rough bark, thinking about all the long decades of this tree's life, and stared up at the bright stars. I think I was wishing that I were the sort of witch who believes that magick can truly protect those things that so desperately need protecting from the ravages of man. Still, though I am emphatically not that sort of witch, I performed a protection ritual. It felt like it was the very least I could do. A sort of cosmic protest vote.

Today, I am thinking of the Lorax, and I'm thinking of Treebeard and the ents, and I'm wondering why this should hurt so much, the loss of this one grand old tree when fully one fifth of the world's tropical rain forests were destroyed between 1960 and 1990. When each year thousands of acres of Brazilian (just Brazil alone, mind you) rain forests are lost to human greed and ignorance. I'm wondering how I can mourn this one tree when, at the current rate of worldwide deforestation, biologists estimate that the world's tropical rainforests may all be gone by 2090 CE. And 23 million more acres of forest will be lost here in the US by 2050.

But it does hurt, a palpable, physical pain. Spooky and I have both cried for the loss of this tree. And I think the answer why it hurts is simply that I knew this one tree as well as anyone may ever "know" a tree. I have loved this one tree, and we breathed in the oxygen it breathed out, and it shaded me from the scorching summer sun, and made the world more beautiful. What am I trying to say? Maybe I've said it all already. Maybe this is someplace words may not ever adequately go.

And I'm still thinking of Treebeard, in the Jackson film of The Two Towers, coming upon the devastation of Fanghorn by Saruman's orcs: Many of these trees were my friends...Creatures I had known from nut and acorn...They had voices of their own.

There are photos, behind the cut:




Yesterday.



Today.


Photographs Copyright © 2007 by Kathryn A. Pollnac

Comments

[blubeagle.livejournal.com]

Cait,

I love your spirit. I'm also this way. We used to have a magnificent area nearby that housed deer and ducks and swans, etc. Well, somebody thought that these wetlands should be torn down for an industrial epicenter, because, well, we live in a hugely industrial area, but it was stupid and pointless. Who needs more businesses and houses, when we have beautiful wetlands to be in awe of, or natural, rapidly diminishing trees in urban areas, where most trees are scarce?

I mourn your tree with you.

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

Damn. Yeah, I get it, and you & Spooky have every right to be sad and angry and I'm sorry.

And don't even get me started on the subject of lawns.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I think I was wishing that I were the sort of witch who believes that magick can truly protect those things that so desperately need protecting from the ravages of man.

And such a familiar thought has not been read elsewhere today. I am sorry; not really for you or myself, or even the tree. Just sorry.

I was once read a class full of 1st graders The Lorax; one of my strongest memories from that time in my life was actually taking those voices. Beh. I'm getting sentiment all over your blog. Sorry.

[laserbitch.livejournal.com]

Damn, that makes me sick.

We have an Elm on our front lawn, the only tree on our block that hasn't succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease, and I know that when they work on our street next year (or the year after, hard to tell with city planning), it will be cut down to make way for cement and asphalt.

Even though each year we have to rooter the roots out of our sewer line. Even though it's just a place for our recycle bin to set by... I'll still mourn its loss. It's a beautiful tree.

Hell, I still mourn the Boxelder we had to cut down because it was dying and threatening to collapse on our house. It provided much good shade, a home for birds and squirrels, and made the world a greener place.

[graygirl.livejournal.com]

It's all so damn senseless.

trees

[kambriel.livejournal.com]

I hope the universe heard your protest, and that energy will be returned somehow.

I had a favourite tree on an ocean lawn. It stood out because it was the only tree, standing alone amidst the high, waving grasses. I always found myself being drawn towards that tree ~ it was a form of love at first sight. One day I went there, to find the horizon cleared. There was no way of missing that the tree was gone.

I found it's stump, having been brought down closer to the level of the grasses around it (but still raised a bit from the grand roots left underneath the soil. I counted the rings ~ there were well over 80, and I imagined the people through the ages that came to this very spot, drawn to this very tree.

Indeed, it does seem utterly senseless.

[elfgirl.livejournal.com]

Honestly, it's obvious that tree's lived a hard life as it is. The public works minions have obviously been trimming her roots away from the road (can't have transport impacted by a silly tree, of course). I imagine she's been in pain for years.

On the other hand, the future of Immaculate Order of the Falling Sky may be looking up (http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/02/19/asteroid.deflector.reut/) (pun intended).

Trees

[grinkat.livejournal.com]

A few weeks ago, we had a very intense ice storm in this area. It brought down a great many trees and limbs, causing power losses in the area for up to two weeks or more, and damaging a lot of houses, including mine. My house has(had) several large trees in the front and back yards; I've always respected them for their grace and power. But, during that night of having limbs crash to the ground with such force that the house shook, and more striking the roof and tearing off gutters and awnings, I wished that they were anywhere but where they were. It wasn't my first bad experience with trees; several years back I lost a house due to a large 100 year elm falling on it. The other day I was cleaning up yet more brush and limbs, hauling it to the curb for the city to take away, and I felt something drop onto my shoulder. I looked up, and saw where, on one broken, mangled limb still attached to the large elm I was under, the morning dew was mingling with the sap slowly oozing from it's splintered end, and dripping down onto me. I felt a deep sense of sadness at that moment; regret that I had (however fleetingly) wished malice on the trees. It's hard to explain...I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have an inkling of understanding about how you feel, and I mourn with you.

[dantree.livejournal.com]

Oh how I wish that I could not relate, but I can.

My last name is Tree and as a wee pagan boy I loved the my name and revelled in it and would run around and talk with trees and would find some that were exceptional trees.

One was at a park, perfect for climbing, sitting at the top of a hill. Another was at my university, she was a peach leaf willow tree, I named her judith, she was up a cobblestone walkway, bent in such a way that I could simply walk up her trunk and sit in her branches, writing and reading the day away.

Another was at another park, actually there were several trees there I loved.

The first two were cut down for reasons unknown, in both cases I got there perhaps the day of or after they had been cut down, sawdust and branches all that was left, maybe a cold sticky trunk. where I would hold my hand to and feel the pain, I would keep a branch, or some of the sawdust each time.

The last park of trees were destroyed in a tornado in Utah, a very odd occurence, we never have tornado's. let alone in downtown Salt Lake City. I blamed global warming for that one, not nature.

As I mentioned I would always keep the branches of these favorite trees, all told I have close to 10 branches.

I have learned not to get too close to the trees, almost thinking me cursed, so I smile and whisper to them from afar, climb the occasional one, but never NEVER picking favorites.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Damn it. I see the same thing out here, and considering that Dallas has a decided lack of trees anyway, it's even more painful to watch one that size get taken out for short-term arrogance. And you're probably right in that this was a convenience call from some dolt who didn't want to have to maintain the tree and figured that taking it out was the best option. (I understand important pruning all too well, as a huge elm tree in my in-laws' back yard effectively peeled into three trees last autumn, but we all made sure that the tree itself would keep going. I'm going to fight for it, seeing as how it was planted the year the Czarina was born, and my in-laws have home movies of her playing around that tree when she was two.)

I'll tell you what, though. If the pruning crew left any branches or live twigs, you could see about propagating that tree and planting the new sapling somewhere else where it'd be better appreciated. I've been doing that quite a bit lately (I'm getting ready to go back to rescue a few cuttings from the honey mesquite tree under which I buried my cats five years ago, because it's going to be taken down as well), and since it's a genetic clone, it's still the same tree. If you want suggestions on how to do this, just give me a yell, and I'd be glad to give as much assistance as I can from out here.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

If the pruning crew left any branches or live twigs, you could see about propagating that tree and planting the new sapling somewhere else where it'd be better appreciated. I've been doing that quite a bit lately (I'm getting ready to go back to rescue a few cuttings from the honey mesquite tree under which I buried my cats five years ago, because it's going to be taken down as well), and since it's a genetic clone, it's still the same tree. If you want suggestions on how to do this, just give me a yell, and I'd be glad to give as much assistance as I can from out here.

Thank you.

They did leave branches. I have some ones with buds that I think would make good candidates for "cloning." Can you e-mail me the "what next" stuff? I'm trying to keep them from drying out (but worried about mildew).

[stardustgirl.livejournal.com]

I read your entry today after being sickened by the sight of huge chunks of tree trunk lying the front yard of a house that formerly had three very large maples in it. I loved how they hung over the sidewalk and had hopes that others might see that and think "hey... I could do that and this would be a lovely old neighborhood someday". I'm stupid that way. In reality, the god of Lawn is worshipped here as well, and what I find bizarre about that is that these people don't even work on their own lawns. Lawns are something they write a monthly check for, and otherwise ignore. I guess the new owner of this house worships at the altar of Lawn as well.

I'll mourn your oak even though I never met it - what a senseless, stupid killing! I've planted a delightfully spiteful number of trees on our 3/4 of an acre, making it not a grass-friendly place. There are 13 in the front yard alone not counting the dwarf trees, and each year another splotch of grass is replaced by a perennial bed. I can only hope that those trees will be loved and cared for in the future when I am gone. Perhaps I'll haunt the place and terrorize anyone wanting to cut them.

I still find myself hoping that the destruction these tree killers cause comes back on their empty heads threefold. I just can't help it.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

There are lots of woodland forbs and grasses (not all grass is evil! only the cross-cropped, chemically-enhanced lawns are really undesirable!) that will grow in partially or fully wooded areas. Restore a woodland glade or meadow! =)

My wife insists I keep about a 1/4 acre of the yard as lawn for the kids to play on, so I use deep rooted, drought tolerant grass, cut fairly high to be heatlhy, and organic fertilizer. Most of the yard is wooded, although some parts (particularly our septic system) will be becoming a beautiful meadow over the next few years. The wooded parts will provide a number of edibles, reducing the grocery bill, and growing naturally in proper forested layers (i.e. minimal maintenance!)

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

At this point, I hope they do remove it fully. Even for tree topping, that's a bit extreme, and if they let it live, it may, but most likely it will succumb to disease. If that happens, hopefully it manages to get some revenge and drop a limb or two on the people responsible for that monstrosity.

With that tree and those power lines, it could likely be coming down by command of whoever owns those lines. Personally, I'd favor them cutting the lines, peeling back the asphalt, and letting that tree - and others - grow wild.

At the least, though, the homeowner(s) will see an increase in the utility bill if they have air conditioning. If not, they'll just roast in there.

I'm starting up a landscaping company in the next year or so, and I'll be able to combat some of this kind of insanity. Probably lose a few jobs when I refuse to chop down something that's quite healthy, but hopefully I'll change a few minds first. Like when they ask to have a tree topped and I agree provided that first they prove they can survive with their own limbs removed and their head chopped off. =)

[sovay]

"Why, the man who cuts down such a tree except when it is really necessary should be hanged as high as Haman on a gallows made from the wood of it."
—L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon (1923)

[hangedwoman.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I would like to relate to you an odd anecdote from my life some years ago. I walked home from work one day in June to be completely suprised by the sight of a very fully grown birch tree in front of my apartment building. I had never seen that tree before in my life. When I talked to friends about it, they insisted it must have been because I'd moved to the apartment that January, and just didn't really notice the tree because it was bare of leaves. I say bullpucky, especially since I had one friend who would park in a very specific place when he would come to visit, and that very specific place was on the other side of that tree. How could I have missed that?

Eventually I just sort of let myself stop being bothered by it (I mean the mystery; I continued to be wary of the tree for some time), but I still think about the "why" occasionally. Sometimes I figured there must be another me somewhere who wondered where her tree disappeared to one day. But then again, maybe that other person is just someone like you who knows exactly what happened to her tree.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

You really have to keep an eye on birch trees. They get up to no end of mischief.

[mb2u]

Depressing.

[kiaduran.livejournal.com]

Brutality against any living being is senseless. My heart hurts.

[chn-breathmint.livejournal.com]

Back in Singapore, where I grew up and lived until autumn of '05, is a mango tree that's somewhat stunted-looking, rather young.

It was planted in the place of a grand old tree that produced the sweetest mangoes I'd ever tasted in my life. Due to unfortunate placement, the tree grew half out of an embankment into a storm drain with a third of its root structure sticking out gnarled into the air.

One night when I was ten years old, I heard a terrible crashing in the middle of a thunderstorm.

The old tree had fallen.

I cried my eyes out when the workers came by the next day to saw its carcass up and remove it.

Some time later the town council planted a new sapling there, but it's never quite been the same without that huge old tree.

I empathize and sympathize with your loss.

- Mel

[smu.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry... the pictures make it really sobering and sad...

When I was a little girl, I lived on Long Island and we had a huge big tree in our front yard. It had red leaves and my sister and I always climbed it and played around it. My father hung xmas lights off it. We watered it in summer when there were droughts.

When we moved, at age nine, I remember hugging the tree before climbing into the car and crying. Years later, I had the chance to drive past our old house. They had painted it an ugly color and... the tree was gone. There wasn't even a stump. At twenty years of age, I sobbed like a little girl because that tree was gone. It meant so much to me.

::sighs::

[dyfferent.livejournal.com]

If that second picture is as short as it got, it might come back. They coppice trees very brutally here and they still come back; in fact it lengthens the lifespan of some types of trees. I had no idea that a tree could come back from that until I saw it myself, but it can.

[broknmirrorgirl.livejournal.com]

reading this made me heartsick for you and spooky and the tree. i wish i had words to offer you some comfort, but i do not. so instead i went and searched for quotes about trees that might help encapsulate the horror and ignorance of what has been done and also the general majesty and beauty of trees.
the first quote reminds me very much of the picture of the tree from today.

A tree which has lost its head will never recover it again, and will survive only as a monument of the ignorance and folly of its Tormentor.  ~George William Curtis

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

Approaching a tree we approach a sacred being who can teach
us about love and about endless giving.  She is one of millions
of beings who provide our air, our homes, our fuel, our books. 
Working with the spirit of the tree can bring us renewed energy, 
powerful inspiration, deep communion.
-   Druid Tree Lore and the Ogham

By gathering seed from trees which are close to our homes and close to our
hearts, helping them to germinate and grow, and then planting them back 
into their original landscapes, we can all make a living link between this 
millennium and the next, a natural bridge from the past to the future.
- Chris Baines

[from-ashes.livejournal.com]

I would have cried, too. I've also felt a certain connection with frees and every city/town that I've lived in, I've always had one that I always considered "MY" tree. In Augusta, on the Riverwalk (where I seldom go now because I don't have the downtown office job anymore), there is a weeping willow. She (for it seems as if it would be a she) was a place I sat under to seek solace over the death of an aunt, a cat and a stepfather. She was nearly destroyed in a horrible storm a few years back, but somehow she survived and was back in full beautiful form the following spring. I miss that tree. I think I need to take a drive into town to visit it...

[anghara.livejournal.com]

[furysadnessangerhelplesspain]

I feel for you and with you. It was a beautiful tree. I will commit it to my own memory too so that it will not have died in vain because of another FREAKING lawn.

I swear, I am allergic to the sound of chainsaws. SO many beautiful old cedars have died in my neck of the woods to make room for cookie cutter houses *built on spec and still unsold*. It makes me sick to my stomach.

[tactileson.livejournal.com]

I am saddened. Thankfully, in my little town in Massachusetts, I don't notice many trees being cut down for lawns, which makes me happy. There are still many old people here who love their trees, and especially, the hedges. You don't see hedges much anymore, and my late grandfather was fanatical about keeping ours alive and well. There is a grand old maple just outside my bedroom window, which I do believe is holding up the entirety of the riverbank just out back of my house. The root system seems like it must surely run the length of the backyard, in many spots my yard has turned to mossy, uneven ground, and I care not. I love that tree. In fact, I am getting it trimmed this spring as it's limbs are getting a little too close to the house, and a large branch broke off during a storm this fall and it still remains hung up in the upper branches, with dead leaves still attached. Anyway, my point is that I feel your pain, and thankfully, there are still some wonderful trees in this world with good protectors. I'd kill before letting someone take this thing down, and not just because it's probably responsible for holding up the ground the house is built on.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Make sure you use an ISA Certified Arborist (http://www.isa-arbor.com/findArborist/findarborist.aspx) - if you get a fly-by-night tree operation, your tree may not survive the trimming. Keep in mind that trees want to be the size that they want to be, and hacking off some limbs will result in the tree replacing those limbs ASAP with sprouty, weaker growth - this usually doesn't end well, as the weaker limbs will be more likely to fall than those that already exist! An ISA Certified Arborist will be competent enough to make sure that the tree's health - and any safety factors such as limbs falling on houses - are fully considered.

[mellawyrden.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that happened, the tree deserved better, I can't stand to see the death of things.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I can't stand to see the death of things.

Death I can handle. It's senseless, wanton death I find so intolerable.

[mlle-rouge.livejournal.com]

I wonder how people are still wanting to breed children. I wouldn't want my children to grow up in a world without great forests.