Here Today-Sawdust Tomorrow.

9-15-08 SHORT HILLS: For those who are following climate change, here’s the current north polar image of the sea ice. For the first time since humans have been watching, both circum-polar sailing routes are open at the same time.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=18145 Here is another link to Earth Observatory web site:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/

Yesterday, Sunday, we had a crew here to do an emergency tree removal. Saturday I noticed a big ash tree near the upper corner of the yard was split from a ‘Y’ about twenty feet up the main trunk almost to the ground level. I called Frank’s Tree, who we have been using for thirty years, for help, hoping the tree could be cabled together. The prognosis was negative. As the tree was next to the utility lines and hanging over small trees and ornamentals, it was important to get it out with a minimum of trauma to the rest of the plants.

They roped it together Saturday evening to keep it from worsening and arrived Sunday AM to do the job. They used a huge crane and chipper and turned most of the tree into sawdust in about two hours. One man in the tree attached the crane lines to a tree section then cut it off. The crane lifted the piece high above the surrounding trees and set it down by the chipper. It took about seven runs. It probably could have been 8-10 cords of firewood. The main trunk was too big to chip. They just sawed it up and took to away. They did a great job, hardly a leaf from anything else was damaged, but it was very sad for us to see such a grand tree die.

We’re off to Sicily on Friday.


The crane lifted and carried big pieces of tree over the other trees to the chipper.

The chipper turned most of the tree, all of it that was less than a foot in diameter, into mulch.

I counted 86 rings. You can see the split even at this level, four inches above ground, extending from the center to the lower edge.