Hello Everyone
Well, we got the cherry picker last week so made a start on felling the affected ash trees. There is something truly sad felling a living tree, even if it is in terminal decline. Needless to say we didn’t manage to fell as many as we intended and I didn’t get stuck up on the platform without power this time – Jim did!
It looks horrendous, like a bomb had gone off, to see the devastation we caused. But you can see the darker centre of the tree that shows the disease is there. Unlike an oak tree that has different sap and heart wood colouration an ash tree would normally be of a uniform colour throughout.
I bet that in a couple of years you won’t notice any gaps where we felled as nature reclaims the space. We were exhausted as the work progessed in the limited time of hire, but the adrenalin rush each time a tree came down reinvigorated us. If we had made a miscalculation then it would have snapped the BT cable just feet to the side, and we didn’t want to do that again!
Years ago the elm trees were devastated by Dutch Elm disease. Now we have Ash Die Back. Tomorrow will the oaks spotted leaf disease decimate the woodlands? How Nature suffers.
However, something to think about – in the Earth’s history there have been several near extinction events (6?) and yet Life has continued. Usually the returning flora and fauna have been rather different each time but Life has a habit of bouncing back. So even if climate change means the end of the world as we know it, I think Life will find a way to climb out of any climate pit. It’s just that we won’t be around to witness it – but never mind eh!
The usual updates are there. Planting by the Moon and Astrology for Healers and Therapists.
Have a good month
Blessings John
