End of the Hemlocks, a Lament (Op-Ed)

[xchrom]

http://www.livescience.com/44634-hemlock-trees-disappearing.html

?1296086757
Photo taken by Ralf Stieber. There are no usage restrictions for this photo.

The ash trees had to go. My neighbors and I, we all knew that.

But when they went, we were still shocked and sad. Nearly 40 years after the completion of the subdivision, the relatively mature trees in our modest neighborhood are prized. Our fondness for trees doesn't mean we knew one from the other, though, and so most of us didn't realize that the primary thoroughfares of our neighborhood were shaded almost entirely by ash trees.

City crews came while most of us were at work and cut down dozens of trees in one particularly industrious day. The long line of stumps made me catch my breath a little when I drove back into the subdivision after work. Our neighborhood had the look of a freshly shorn sheep, with all its cuts and bumps showing, manure clinging to its underbelly. Every patch of flaking stucco, every sagging gutter, every DIY disaster — all were exposed to the revealing sun.

Suddenly my neighbors, who generally don't live in the same bubble of conservation concern in which I spend my days, were talking about a metallic green insect called the emerald ash borer (which has killed more than 10 million trees in North America) and wanted to know more about this thing called "invasive species."

[Demeter]

1. Been there, done that

But new trees have been planted. Circle of life, and all that.