The murder of the sycamores and the loblolly pines

Tree #22 continued Sycamore

This is the sequel to the murder of the regal privet. Sycamore trees were the subject of another post. (Tree #22)

This story was brought to my attention by my wife. She works on Mud Island and sees the Harbor Bend Rd where Miss Cordelia's is located Monday through Friday. The street was planted for several city blocks with sycamores. Then all of a sudden they were cut down. There are some that escaped the chain saw in the parking lot of Miss Cordelia's. One is shown here. 

Sycamore in Miss Cordelia's parking lot June 5, 2014

Now I ask you, can you see anything wrong with this tree? In March Susan and I went to Paris to visit our daughter doing a semester abroad. If there is a Parisian tree it is the sycamore. They are planted along many of the city streets. Some are quite large. One reason suggested for cutting the sycamores in Harbor Town is that they would damage the sidewalks. They do not damage the sidewalks in Paris, even very old trees. I drove around Harbor Town to look for larger older sycamore trees to show the trunks and the sidewalks. Here is one from an old section of the town. 

Sycamore trunk between sidewalk and curb June 5, 2014.

The sidewalk is flat, but two squares are whiter suggesting they may have bee replaced. This tree is probably about 20 years old, planted near the founding of Harbor town in the mid 90s. 

It does not matter now why the trees were cut. They are gone. The shade they provided is gone and the verdure they provided is also gone. They were replaced by 15 new (about 2 inch in diameter) trees. These are trident maples and they should be very pretty in the fall.

Trident maple on Harbor Bend

Samaras on a trident maple

 

Closeup of the trident maple leaves. They are quite small and distinctly shaped.

It seem unjustified to cut down beautiful trees on a whim.

Tree #18 meets its end. RIP loblolly pines
 
The murder of the loblolly pines (see tree #18 and tree #18 continued)

Near the end of Satinwood Dr. as it meets Hickory Crest there is a house that had nine large loblolly Pines. These were probably planted at the time the neighborhood was built in the mid 70s, so they were about 40 years old. About a month or two ago one tree next to the driveway was cut down. It oozed sap from the trunk for weeks. This past week five more of the trees were cut. The stump of one is shown below.

Loblolly pine stump June 28, 2014

The trunks and branches from these trees were stacked along the curb from driveway to driveway piled six feet high. The pine resin fragrance filled the air. This particular tree was about three feet across at the cut. The other stumps have already been ground down below the lawn surface. This one will soon follow, leaving a mess in a impoverished yard. History is erased. The next door neighbors related a story about this tree. A woman who had been drinking heavily rammed this tree with her car (unintentionally). Empty liquor bottles were found in her car. The bark and part of the wood on this tree were sheared off and you can see the scar (about two feet wide) in the picture above. So even though this tree could survive a 2000 pound car ramming it, it could not survive the new home owner's desire for more light in the front windows or some equally arbitrary reason. At the moment there are three pines left in the front of the house. We can only watch and see what their fate will be.