I love trees, but sometimes you have to step in and do some “tough love” on Nature. For a while now, I have been worried about the old willow trees that are growing close to my house. They were just saplings in 1977 when we bought our house, and we dug them up and transplanted them so they would be out of the way, but over the years, I built some additions to our house, which made the willows closer. They continued to grow and grow.
In 2014, when the willows had just gotten too tall, endangering the house if they blew over, I had an arborist crew come and cut them way back. The poor willows looked horrible afterwards, but it didn’t stop them from growing. Now, twelve years later, the sprouts that regrew from the tops of the trees have grown to the point where the trees were just as tall, if not taller, than they were originally, so I called the arborist to come out again to cut the willows down to 10 ft (3 m). That should eliminate the danger to the house.
It is fascinating to watch the arborists do their work high above the ground, in a boom. Others are gathering the falling branches and turning them into chips. They are also bucking up the big chunks so can use them for firewood. Some of the big sections of the trees are so heavy, they have to use a special machine to carry them to be bucked up (photo below);
Again, like the last time the arborists were here, it is hard to watch what is being done to the old willows, but it is something that has to be done. Hopefully in a few years, as they grow new limbs from their tops, we won’t even notice all the amputating that is being done to them now.
Take a look at my pantings: davidmarchant2.ca
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