In 1960 as I graduated from high school in St. Paul the first trees were identified with the Dutch elm disease. The trees over arched most of the city streets& sheltered all. Ten years later Minneapolis and St. Paul lost virtually all of their street trees. Crews had removed tens of thousands of diseased elms to slow the spread . All to no avail .Eventually elms throughout the state were under attack & only a scattered few in the woods here and there survived. I live on Oak Hill Drive in SpringValley, Minnesota and a large tree died in our woods this summer, so without looking close I assumed that it was an oak tree. Wrong. It was an ELM. Age &comon sense mean I don' cut down huge trees any more . A local tree service did the job that elm tree must've been around the hundred feet tall. Take a look.
In 1970 in Portland (Ore) almost all the Dutch Elms in the downtown park blocks got it and had to be cut down. I worry about what the future holds for our kids and grands with what the supreme court is likely to look like.
ReplyDeleteWe lost a lot of trees this year due to the Derecho and I mourned when the sound of the chain saws for a few weeks drowned out the birds chirping. Where are they going to build their nests next year? How sad that all the Elms and Chestnut trees are gone.
ReplyDeleteWe had our very own elm tree, and looked after it as year after year it succumbed. Finally it had to be removed, about ten years ago. Sad day. With RBG gone, my first thought, our daughters have to fight the fights again.
ReplyDeleteIn Fargo they gave them some kind of medication injected into their roots...it probably didn't work. That is one big tree you had in your yard...good to get rid of it!
ReplyDeleteGreat metaphor that I wasn't expecting.
ReplyDeleteLike Anvilcloud, love the comparison. She was a giant.
ReplyDeleteWe had a Chinese Elm in our yard when we bought the house. It was a horrid beast of a tree--weak, unstable, dropped HUGE branches at the slightest breeze. We removed that thing before it killed someone. Don't miss it now. I wonder if regular Elms are like that, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI pray for our country, no matter which extreme will be chosen this fall.
May we all take the time to honor the Supreme Court icon who fought against discrimination in all it's forms: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The last thing she wished for is that her passing did not take front and center in further dividing our Nation through partisan political hysteria. Lovely picture of your son, his wife and the grandchildren.
ReplyDeleteWow, that was a big tree. I’m glad you didn’t decide to tackle that job yourself! I was so sad to hear of the death of Ruth Badger Ginsburg, too. She was quite a lady and we have many things to be grateful to her for as women.
ReplyDeleteI love to see a happy family combining the best of all worlds. Also, thank you so much for your comment on my blog. I really don't want to turn it into nothing but political posts but I felt compelled to speak up today. I was born in 1933 and, even being that young, I could feel the discomfort of my family and the rise of the Nazis ... we have to fight that here in our beloved country.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Milwaukee in the 1950s and 1960s. We had the elms lining the streets, providing a tunnel of branches and wonderful shade. In around 1956, our street was paved, adding sidewalks, and so many of the elms were in the way and had to go. The rest were taken down with the Dutch Elm disease hit the city. Fast forward to 1977 when we moved to Northern Minnesota. There were some large elms in our woods, and most had to come down because of the disease. That is the only wood my husband has had to use a mechanical wood splitter on in all these years, as we heat primarily with wood, but Elm is close to impossible to split by hand. HOWEVER there were a few elms here and there, just teenagers, and they survived. When I'm at the computer, I look right out into the top of an elm of that era, now pretty grown up. It attracts lots of birds. One of its branches is too close to the house, so it should probably come down. Too bad. Need to treat the trees with respect, whether for fire wood, or for bird perches. Justice Ginsburg surely knew what it meant to treat people with respect, as she argued for equal rights for men as well as for women, and for people of any group when was being deprived.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the elm tree.
ReplyDeleteAlways sad when a tree dies. I have lost a golden raintree, two Bradford pear trees and two mountain ash trees in the last several years. The Bradford pear trees blew down in windstorms (weak wood) and the mountain ash because of the ash borers.
But, I have plenty of firewood now, so one good thing to come of it.
Plus I have an Austrian and a Black Forest pine trees that are also under attack by a disease, but they're hanging in there.
We need voices like RBG out there.
RoadDog
I am a first-time visitor to your blog and Thank You very much for you recent comment on mine. We are enjoying the start of beautiful fall foliage here in NH and perhaps some future time you will again be a "leaf peeper." I too liked the comparison of the tree with RGB and sorry they are both gone now. I also enjoyed "meeting" you son and his family and plan to read some previous posts on your blog. Please feel free to re-visit anytime; all visits appreciated.
ReplyDelete