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2007 04 17
A Tree Falls in the Junction
A week ago, the final connection between earth and sky in our corner of the Junction was severed when a crew from Weller Tree service arrived at the behest of the City to cut down the giant silver maple that stood at the corner of Gilmour and Vernon. With a practiced combination of care and efficiency, the crew from Weller spent half a day dismantling what had taken a century to grow. As the crew worked at the canopy, dendritic limbs spun and swayed in a final ballet before descending to earth.
According to Frazer's Golden Bough, trees are among the most appropriate subjects of worship. They are protectors, compasses, and containers of secrets and souls. Frazer writes,
If trees are animate, they are necessarily sensitive and the cutting of them down becomes a delicate surgical operation, which must be performed with as tender a regard as possible for the feelings of the sufferers, who otherwise may turn and rend the careless or bungling operator. When an oak is being felled, 'it gives a kind of shriekes or groanes, that may be heard a mile off, as if it were the genius of the oake lamenting.' The Ojebways 'very seldom cut down green or living trees, from the idea that it puts them to pain, and some of their medicine-men profess to have heard the wailing of trees under the axe.' Trees that bleed and utter cries of pain or indignation when they are hacked or burned occur very often in Chinese books, even in Standard Histories. Old peasants in some parts of Austria still believe that forest-trees are animate, and will not allow an incision to be made form the bark without special cause; they have heard from their fathers that the tree feels the cut not less than a wounded man his hurt. In felling a tree they beg its pardon. (from "The Worship of trees")
The crew loaded the largest of limbs into the back of a flatbed truck, and fed smaller branches into the maw of a chipper that ground bark, heartwood and sap into fragments that, ideally, will be spread into protective skirts around newly planted trees elsewhere. Despite the destruction, there was a hypnotic quality in watching this work, the equipment large and loud enough to subdue even a hundred foot tree.
As the tree came down, large hollowed-out cross-sections appeared, confirming the tree's precarious condition. During the winter several of its branches had crashed down in high winds. But a large hollowed bowl in the tree's heart had housed squirrels and perhaps raccoons, and was big enough that even I was temped to crawl inside, to listen to the tree's deep dying voice. By afternoon only the roots remained, an incision reaching into the earth and a buried reflection of vanished branches.
As part of a program to maintain Toronto's urban forest, upon request The City of Toronto will plant a free tree on the road allowance fronting any residential property. Call 416-338-TREE for yours.
It’s not always necessary to cut the tree right down to the ground.
We could show some respect for the tree, as well as enjoy the beauty of the trunk and short sections of limbs and the bark by leaving the lower part of the tree standing. Why not?
In many cases, it’s fine. For safety issues, the trunk is highly unlikely to blow over. In my experience, it’s simply that people haven’t thought about leaving it. And the chainsaw operators … motor-toy-happy guys (ever seen a woman taking such pleasure?) are all too keen to slice and dice for the sake of having fun with the chain saw. Enough aleady.
It still gives a presence on the street/yard/park; provides a place for nests (as a ‘snag’); and, saves a considerable amount of absolutely awful chainsaw noise/emissions – no small matter.
Can even be carved with artwork, or possibly formed into a seat of some sort. Some dignity to our arborial friends.
Much better than the scar of a stump or ‘plate’ on the ground.
If you, dear reader, have an opportunity to intervene and save a trunk section, please do so. It can always be cut further later on, in necessary, but can’t be put back up.
Posted by David on 04/17 at 05:21 PM
Joe: A quick read through any of the cross-cultural mythology classics (e.g., Frazer, as mentioned above, or Circlot’s Dictionary of Symobls) suggests that you’re in the minority in thinking trees are even metaphorically voiceless or inert. Indeed, the very “lifespan” that trees symbolize probably accounts for much of their mythical—and metaphorical—resonance.
David: I agree that too often trees seem to be cut down entirely when perhaps judicious trimming would suffice. However, I (personally) do not have any desire to see truncated stubs left behind if a tree is already dead or dying. I would far rather see the site prepared for new planting, as seems increasingly to be the case in my own (Junction) neighbourhood.
By the way, I quite enjoy using a chainsaw and most other power tools.
Have you ever seen ‘dead trees’ standing in any woods or other setting … there is a beauty to it/them as snags (while serving a useful function). It’s not appropriate in every case, especially in a city, of course. The dead/dying tree is providing new life. And that particular site is not available for replanting for quite awhile anyway.
Perhaps it’s an aspect of our ‘hyper sanitary’ society – similarly, that we need to ‘clean up’ the leaves (that we call garbage/trash/waste) and ‘get rid of ‘em’.
And, don’t we all have pieces of dead stumps ‘inside’ our homes/etc. It seems that only after ‘we’ve’ done something to it do we call it wood, and therefore aesthetically pleasing. The key is to be artistic so as not to leave a lifeless stub; rather something appealing, It’s possible. Y’know, sometimes just leaving the trunk temporarily is worthwhile.
Come to think of it, the parks dept. – to their credit – did just that with a trunk(s) in Kew Gardens in the Beaches, with a (several?) carved faces … really striking. And gives the trunk new life (for a while anyway).
I’ve seen far too many felled trees in parks/ravines/etc. which were ‘sliced’ up for no other reason than the operator ‘having fun’. I know tools. I also know most other don’t. I won’t go into the power tool ‘thing’ here.
For me, the problem is the pervasive poor planning, wrongful felling, and waste of good timber (that could be used/milled) by cutting up into useless bits and pieces. If we were to be more careful as a matter of course, I wouldn’t mind the total removal of trees when appropriate.
In your travels, keep an eye out for such candidates for artistic display.
Posted by David on 04/19 at 07:42 AM
David;
I’ve seen plenty of dead trees in woods, and—where they are not mass victims of some plague of insects, fire, shopping mall development, or beavers—agree that they are both beautiful and evocative of processes of decay and regeneration. However, dead trees in the city always make me think of termites and carpenter ants.
Having said that, the deadfalls in places like High Park are indeed quite beautiful (and necessary for nutrient-replacement and habitat for other living things). I had forgotten about the druidic carvings in Kew Gardens, which from pictures seem quite lovely. I am all for low ‘tables’, and grew up watching my mother plant small gardens in decaying stumps. And just last evening, Peter and I surveyed a beautifully burled Manitoba maple we’ll likely need to cut down (despite our efforts to save it through selective trimming) and decided to use the final 8 feet or so of its trunk as a gate post. Our Junction-sized property hosts a small urban forest consisting of a honey locust, a red ash, a mulberry tree, two groups of overgrown cedars, several Chinese sumacs, lilac, Silver maple, Norway maple, and Manitoba maple (with their attendant understory of flora and in-dwelling creatures). We value these trees both living and dead.
So, please consider me mostly in agreement with you: Where ‘natural’ conditions can be maintained, it’s great to leave trees to grow, decay, and regenerate, providing habitat, nutrients, and beauty at all stages (including the kinds of carving you mention). But in many dense urban neighbourhoods where termites and ants are a problem and where replanting is an urgent priority (the silver maple cut down at our corner was the last mature tree on our block), it may be preferable to prepare the soil for new growth.
By the way, I’ve written a short essay on the need to rethink human activity so it is more consistent with natural processes, called “A Philosophy of Salvage”. You can read it here.
By the way, I agree totally that too often trees are cut down and dismembered when they don’t need to be. Too often healthy trees are cut down because someone felt the shade affected their property value or didn’t like blossoms and bird sh*t falling on their cars. This morning’s paper reports that several mature silver maples were cut from the grounds of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health on Queen Street, reportedly because of a need for soil remediation near their roots. Without wanting to disparage the need/efforts to decontaminate the soil or the difficulty of the task, it seems to me that efficiency may have won out over care in this case. At the very least I hope the City/agency will spring for juvenile trees rather than just dumping a few saplings as replacements.
