Timmmberrrrr!

Dear Reader,

Oh, it's been a tough few weeks out in the Park.

It's been a very rainy summer, and because of this, the trees have become saturated and heavy. There have been dozens of branches falling, all over the Park. In my area, about 4 weeks ago, a large limb fell off of one of the older trees, into the street. This was a big mess for Parks and the Dept. of Transportation to clean up. I found the remains when I went out to work in the Park that weekend; but this was only the first volley.

Two weeks ago, on August 24, I was out in the Park working late. All was well; status quo. I came out the next day, Saturday, and was confronted with yellow "Caution" tape and neon orange traffic cones in the main lawn space of my area. As I got closer to the cordoned-off area, I saw that there was a huge chunk of tree out along the curb of Riverside Drive, and many more logs and branches adjacent to the old American Linden that was the centerpiece of the space. In finally sank in that the old tree had lost its entire left, lower side; a huge swath of tree was gone, along with large chunks of adjacent trees that were entangled with the branches that fell.

After I absorbed the situation, I began to clean the area; pruning off thinner branches and stubs from the large chunks of wood that were on the ground; disentangling those branches from the shrubs on the ground; trying to pull all of the broken stuff together to be carted off. It was either do this work or sit and mourn; I decided to work. As I was pulling and tugging though, I got my feet tangled up with one of the logs on the ground; I fell backwards and landed hard on my tailbone area. It took a couple of minutes for me to determine that I had not compressed another vertebra (my T-12 had a compression fracture back in 1981; there is no pain comparable to that of a broken back), but boy, was I in pain. Naturally, I thought the best thing to do was to keep working, in 90 degree heat, with 90% humidity. What else was I going to do?

So, I cleaned up as much of the downed limbs as I could, and by that time it was dark. I came out the next day and did further work on what Parks had left behind. I had the sinking feeling, though, that the old tree was not long for this earth. After a few emails over the next few days, I got the verdict: the tree was too rotted out internally to stay up. What a disaster.

I had been fearing the loss of this tree for the last few years. When I finally saw the reality of it, I cried. There is a huge, empty space. All of the life that tree supported and promoted is now gone or has had to move away. Yes, there are plenty of other trees, but the Park has lost a major asset.

I think of trees in terms of biomass. If you look at a large tree, and understand that this huge thing is alive, it's really quite daunting. No, they can't move (although they DO turn towards the light, and DO gravitate away from buildings, and their roots grow TOWARDS water sources), but they do contribute to the life-force in their immediate areas. They go through life cycles just as animals do, and participate in the general environment in a number of ways. This particular tree, an American Linden (or Basswood) has a remarkable scent when it blooms in the late spring. It, along with the Little-leaf Lindens which line Riverside Drive, perfume nearly the entire Upper West Side for a few weeks every year. This may be passive, but the trees make their presence known.

The big, old tree is gone. I wasn't able to go out much last weekend, Labor Day, although I had made plans to do a large chunk of work, especially as 9/11 is looming, and it is the "Firemen's Memorial Island," after all. I hope I can do the work this weekend, to at least get the place looking greenish. Of course, taking down and carting away such a large tree has resulted in a lot of damage to the lawn and the area around the tree; huge ruts, bare spots, gouges. It's going to take a couple of seasons just to correct that damage. Replacing the tree, however, will take far longer. The first "ring count" was 90, which is probably a good ballpark of how old that tree was. That predates much of Riverside Park, and many of the buildings on the Upper West Side. I am hoping to hone in on a "real" age for the tree, and maybe even find some old photos. I'll have to relearn how to do research, but I hope to do so.

The one upside is that when they removed the tree, they ran a lot of it through a wood chipper, and left a huge pile of chips for use in the Park. They even left the chips in an area where it's useful to have them, and easy for the other volunteers and me to cart them away. So, the Old Guy will continue to contribute to the life of the Park.

Where is Treebeard when we need him?

Chipping Away,
Catbird

PS: Photos to come in the next entry, I hope. cb