Sometimes you have to cut down a tree.

I don’t like it when people cut down trees.  I’ve been known to yell out my car window “Quit cuttin’ down trees!” Mostly where people are cutting them down willy nilly with no regard to aesthetics, or natural landscaping, or future parking lots…

Not too long ago, I watched them remove mature trees at a shopping center, only to replace them with young trees.  Why? They were trying to dissuade a bird population.

I watched someone cut down some huge trees to put in a dollar store.

Must to my dismay we had no choice but to cut down a hickory tree that was twisted, torn and falling from a recent windstorm.  The majestic hickory sat on the curve of my driveway.  The wind from the storm twisted the top half causing it to fall over, take out a catalpa tree, and block the driveway.

We tried our best to figure out a way to save what remained.  It couldn’t be done.

So down came the hickory.

I counted the rings.  There were just over a hundred. Made me even sadder.  This tree had been around, overlooking this very hill for an entire century before this little storm took the best of it.

The trunk, now cut into pieces will make log seating.  The smaller pieces will become firewood for grilling. So, it won’t be wasted, but, I’ll be sad every time we use a piece of it.

The good news?  Whenever we loose a tree on our property, we immediately replace it with another native tree.  We’ll be planting a replacement hickory in it’s same place.

Long live the native trees.

You can read about, locate or nominate Oklahoma’s champion trees at the Oklahoma Forestry website: http://www.forestry.ok.gov/champion-trees