Trees
What do people have against shade? Meaning, what do people have against shade provided by trees? Meaning, people living on suburban plots of a quarter acre.
I love my trees, especially my oak, sheltering the west side of my house. That oak also has a dead branch at just the right height to hold my bird feeder.
You know who else loves that oak? My birds. Okay, not actually mine, but they keep me company throughout the day. When I see them fly into the neighbor’s yard, I become resentful. Am I crazy? If you knew the neighbor, you’d understand.
On the other side of me, my neighbor of over thirty years has decamped for less green but more expensive quarters. When the people on the other side of her moved in, they took down all the trees that shaded her backyard and put up a fence instead, turning her backyard into a field of vast nothingness. She lived in a one-story, they had a two-story. Poor woman loved the out-of-doors, but all of a sudden had no place to go for privacy. True, a fence is made of wood. But it’s not a tree with overhanging branches and leaves that offer not only shade, but as I’ve pointed out before, a home for our feathered friends. And privacy!
The person who has taken her place has done a Lizzy Borden on the trees separating our properties. Not the entire tree, mind you, just the branches on his side of the tree. I wonder how the tree felt?
There goes my eastern shade. Now my dining room is very bright in the summer sun. His giant SUV makes a picturesque sight, as it sits in his driveway, where I can see it all day, if I’m so inclined. Am I grateful? You’re kidding, right?
Our little suburban oasis of entitlement calls itself “Tree City USA.” One needs a permit to cut down trees of a certain size. But butchering trees? That’s allowed.
Philosophically, this question has been asked before—and answered by some smarty pants who probably doesn’t like trees: If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one to hear it, has it really fallen?. I think you can guess my answer to that. If we listen carefully, we can all hear trees being felled, whether for timber in old growth forests, for cultivation in the Amazon, or in our own neighborhoods. Let’s not stop up our ears while our trees are screaming for our help!