Petawawa's Original Tree Hugger           

            I love trees – all sorts of trees and I really hate to see any cut down.  In fact when Son #2 was contemplating cutting down several of the huge pine trees that were very close to his home, I threatened to chain myself to a couple of them that were my favorites.  But luckily for both of us, he wasn’t planning on cutting those particular trees down as they were far enough away from the house, so I didn’t have to find a combination padlock to go with a length of chain.

             And so when my next door neighbor mentioned the four remaining large pine trees in her backyard were being removed –plus an even bigger tree on the neighbor’s property on the other side of her home, I felt that same old sadness creeping in.  But since my neighbor isn’t related to me, I didn’t feel I could threaten her with the chain and padlock trick.  After the terrible storm we had in this area a few years ago that saw Petawawa alone with over 1,000 downed trees, I could certainly understand the nervousness of some homeowners who inherited these very large trees.

             Since the ones to be cut were huge (the biggest approximately 80-90 feet high) I decided that I wanted to watch the process of removing them from start to finish.  I knew that someone would climb the tree and cut it off one section at a time, but my concern was that when these sections fell to the ground there was no control over where they landed not to mention the huge hole they would no doubt put in the lovely green lawn.

             One tree was only a foot from the edge of the neighbor’s garage roof overhang and all of the trees, should they be cut at the very bottom while they were still in one piece, would demolish any one of our homes or garages when they fell – so this was one event I didn’t want to miss.  I must admit that in my ignorance of just how these trees would be taken down, I secretly hoped that one would bounce of our garage roof a couple of times – smack dab in the middle.  It would be a wonderful way to get rid of all HIS clutter – to remove the garage and it’s contents in a thousand pieces so that we could start from scratch and rebuild a new one.  But I knew should that happen, HE wouldn’t be a happy camper and I didn’t want to be around to experience HIS reaction.

             Alas, my secret hopes for some garage excitement were completely dashed when this huge 25-ton portable crane arrived with a 92-foot boom.   As the men prepared for their day’s work, I decided to record the events with my digital camera.  One neighbor wasn’t at home and I knew she had wanted to watch the process just as much as I did.  And so I sat a few houses down – safely away from all the activity with my other neighbor, shaded by a huge maple tree that I’m sure was breathing a sigh of relief since it wasn’t on the chopping block.

             Being afraid of heights, I had to marvel at the man climbing the tree to affix the loop of cable suspended from the boom onto the top section of tree.  Then he managed to balance himself with the safety harness etc and maneuvered this heavy chainsaw into place to cut a distance below the cable.  Once the section of tree was cut through, the crane very slowly moved the tree section over the neighbor’s garage to it’s resting place at the front of the house where it was then de-limbed by several men wielding chainsaws like I would a paintbrush!!  The whole process was just amazing to watch.  The care the crane operator used in moving the log from point A to point B all the while following the hand signals of ground person was real poetry in motion.  

           The cut limbs were then fed into a worrisome shredder. I call it worrisome because any piece of equipment that makes that much noise, (chainsaws included) does so for a reason.  They are dangerous and must be used with caution.  But these men were definitely professionals and they made this tasking look so easy. I was totally impressed with all that they did to ensure safety for every person and piece of property was paramount in everyone’s minds and to me it was a day very well spent. 

            Besides, when some friends asked me what I had done that day, I could honestly tell them I sat out in the sun and watched trees and I’ve got the pictures to prove it!