Cutting Trees

To cut a tree down? Or not?

Living in the woods eventually presents the conundrum of shade--shade (and all those tree roots) in the garden and a shady (i.e., dark) house. We come to the forest for the trees, yet living in the shade, we yearn for sun.

A neighbor is having logger cut down a swath of the pine plantation that a farmer planted in 1939. She recently had solar-voltaic panels installed, so the logging project began as a quest for more sunlight. Now, the logging truck has made 4 trips to the carry logs to the local sawmill.

But we love our trees. The ones in our yard nearly acquire personalities. I've been parking my car under a hemlock for 20 years. I call it my Hemlock Garage for the protection it provides from snow and from sun. Who needs a garage with 4 walls when you have hemlock boughs overhead? Soon this hemlock will be cut down to make way for a real garage.

Trees too are of the nature to die--sometimes not of natural causes. We privilege our own viewpoint and our own human needs.

And the tree says nothing.