Day 329 – Death of a Giant

November 24, 2016 – Feeling overwhelming sadness and guilt…..

Today the second tree came down. It wasn’t an easy removal, though it was faster than the first, but not by much, the crew was still here for over five hours. There weren’t many live limbs left on it, at least not compared to how many dead ones there were. Heavy gusting winds added a further complexity and danger to the work, mostly to the guy up at the top of the tree, as a massive nearby cedar bent and swayed towards him.

There were a couple of moments where I drew my breath in sharply, such as when the third and tallest crown came down with it’s branches intact. The crew expertly swung it and lowered it safely between the trees below without damaging anything.

The truly frightening moment was when the ground crew slipped the swing line but, rather than let go, grabbed and was pulled into the trunk as the log was falling. He hit the tree and immediately bolted sideways and a fraction of a moment later the eight foot log came crashing to the ground where he had just been. He stood with his head down to and his hands on his knees breathing deeply for a few minutes while the other fellow on the ground stood with his hand over his heart. Up the tree, the feller later told me, that he was shaking for awhile. “That was too close” he said to me.

When they finished and left I felt just wrecked by the loss of the two trees, and I will for some time to come. The yard seems barren, even though it still contains so much. Those two massive trunks gave a sense of stability and power to the yard. I had no idea how powerfully their removal would affect me.

I removed myself by taking a walk down to the hatchery a few blocks from my home and tried to take comfort in the wild forest along the Capilano River.

The river is running high, Metro is dumping a lot of water from the reservoir these days, and standing on the fishway made it seem as if I was standing directly in the river, the water only a small distance below the wall.

But when I walked back home, after visiting the staff at the hatchery, I stood where those magnificent trees had stood for so long, and just felt gutted again.