The Practical Dilettante

Update: With enough calls to the right people, we have permission to keep the trees. Also, we discovered that, under duress, we can transplant 8 shrubs (about 2 years worth of work at our normal pace) in 36 hours. So now we have no excuse.

We noticed a couple of days ago that there were orange markers on our rose bushes. At first, I thought nothing of it, but then my partner suggested that it might have something to do with the road construction. “Surely not,” I said. “They’re all the way back on this side of the rose bush.” (The rose bush is about 10 feet thick.) But he called the information line about the construction and they said, “Well, we’re cutting everything on the road side of the orange markers.”

Which is all of this:

And all of this (but the very tallest tree) before the next power pole.

Now, the reasoning is (they told us) that they aren’t going to get back to cut for another 30 years. But when they take all these established trees, they pave the way for exactly the kind of succession plants (like aspen and birch) that they are trying to get rid of. Also, they make it look like this:

Not to mention that (untidy lawn aside), the rose bush is so pretty that tourists stop to take pictures of it. Because it looks like this close up:

And to be really clear, it doesn’t interfere with lines of sight.

And it won’t grow down and across the moat, because there are established plantings there (cattails and lupines), also. Although once they disrupt the system, the weeds will probably take over instead.

Also, this tree, which gifts me with a beautiful red glow at sunset every day, will still be gone.

We moved the rarest of the plants during the heat of the day… we have always intended to put a hedge down the side the driveway, but this wasn’t how we wanted to do it:

It’s hard to tell, but we transplanted 2 quinces, 2 forsythia, and a weigela.

We’re serious about our plants, and this was the one part of the property that we could look at and be content with. It just seems like so much wanton destruction… and so ill-conceived. I saw a number of fully grown trees today that had had no branches below the 20 foot mark that have been reduced to this:

This tree was not a sight-line problem, but the succession species (that is, weed trees) that will take its place will be.

Also, ugly.

This thing of beauty that inspired me every time I looked out the window is going to be replaced with a clearcut that won’t be re-established until I am nearly 60 years old. Which will (apparently) be just about time for them to come and destroy it again.

Heartbroken. I am heartbroken.

Filed under: Day-to-Day, Rural Living Tagged: | clearcut, construction, landscaping, trees