Tuesday, July 19, 2016

A Sad Day

Our first two houses we had built.  They were in new subdivisions that had been corn fields until someone decided to sell lots and start building houses.  So, we didn't have trees.  At least not trees of any size.   Do you know how long it takes for a tree to grow?  Years.

We did have a couple young Maple trees in Wisconsin that were there when we built the house, so we let them grow.  They weren't huge, but they had gotten pretty tall, and then we lost them in the tornado.

Beginning on the tree out front
So we were excited when we moved here to finally have trees.  So excited to have trees that I took lots of pictures of our trees.  No, actually I didn't; I just spent quite a bit of time looking through all my pictures from the summer we moved here, and I can't find one picture of the trees I want to talk about now.  But they were here, and they were big, and they were beautiful and healthy.  That fall was the first time we had ever had to rake leaves.  And there were a lot of leaves.

It takes the right equipment
But apparently something very small can kill something very big and old in a very short time.  I had heard of the Emerald Ash Borer, but hadn't really paid attention.  It was something about not being able to take firewood from one area to another, but it didn't really seem to apply to us.  But when we got these trees, it did apply to us - only we didn't really think about it or realize it.  Until our trees died.  One summer they had leaves; the next they didn't.  Or not very many.  And this summer there was one small branch on one of the two Ash trees that had some leaves.  One.

The tree in the back yard

Multi-year studies have shown that if more than 50% of the canopy has been killed by EAB or if the canopy appears to be thin and carrying less than half as much foliage as it should, it is probably too late to save the tree.

Making progress

So, but the time we noticed anything was wrong (honestly, but the time I even knew they were Ash trees), it was too late to do anything.  Except have the trees removed.


Today we had the nice guys from Sutton's Tree, Lawn, Landscape come and begin the process of taking the trees out.  While it was interesting to watch them, I couldn't help thinking as I watched them come down, "Our poor trees."  It's just crazy that a little Asian bug can cause so much damage.

Tomorrow they come and take the rest
Yes, we do still have more trees than we had before, but it's really sad to see these two go.