Way Too Much Gravity

It was yesterday at about 11;30 AM.  The weather was was sunny and calm. Not a leaf rustled in the stillness.  When the loud cracking sounds reached my ears, my first thought was of fireworks. It was not one big bang, but a whole series of  loud noises like the finale at the end of a fireworks show.  I have to admit I was angry at the thought since the sound was so close to the garden and the house.  When I looked toward the source of the sound I actually saw what seemed to me to be a gaping hole where there used to be a continuous line of tree tops.  I used to think that trees were permanent features of the landscape.  Living here has taught me that change can be slow, but it can also happen in the blink of an eye.

Today Ed risked life and limb to get pictures of the Red Maple tree that was responsible for all that noise.  The tree is large, perhaps several feet in diameter, and is growing on a steep incline.  Climbing that steep slope presented challenges for someone who is losing his sense of balance.  For some reason Red Maples send out branches perpendicular to the trunk.  When that branch reaches sunlight it turns and grows vertically toward the sky.  How can a huge unsupported mass like that exist for years?

Clearly there was way too much gravity pulling on the branches and leaves of the tree and 11:30 yesterday was the tree's breaking point.

A closer view of the broken branch shows the source of all that noise.  Every crack, every split and splinter of the wood as the tree branch fell to the ground made itself loudly heard.  It would be interesting to count the rings to see how long the tree has been holding that branch in the air like that but lumber jacking on that steep hill is not in our plans.  I am really happy that the main trunk of the tree seems undamaged.  So to answer that old question about a falling tree making a sound  I would have to say indeed it does and it sounds just like the fourth of July!

A Hole In The Forest Canopy

On a recent trip to the back woods near the edge of our property, the increased amount of daylight present was the first sensation to register with me.  Then I noticed maple leaves overhanging the small clearing where the truck is turned.  Bad news quickly followed when the remains of the giant red maple tree came into view.  A storm of some significance had felled two of the remaining central trunks.

When we first began walking this land, this giant red maple impressed us.  Most of the trees here were comparatively young, growing where attempts to farm poor land were abandoned.  Why this tree was never cut remained a mystery.  It stood out in sharp contrast to its neighbors because of its unusual size .  Six massive side trunks grew from the central vertical trunk.  These were huge and I could never understand how the tree was able to support so much mass that grew so far away from the main trunk.

The grown over hole marks the former location of the first side trunk to fall.  The main trunk has an indentation there that allowed me to back into the tree under the side trunk.  Energy transfer between tree and man is likely fiction but I spent time on every walk up against the tree.  My mood was calmer when I left the tree.  I felt invisible and a part of nature since I was so far into the tree.

There must have been a thunderous crash when these parts of the tree fell.  A sudden snap when the first section separated would have made a terrible sound.  The larger upper section fell first.  Crashing onto the lower piece, it fell also.  It appears that current weather events feature localized storms of unusual intensity.  My tree would speak in  support of that point of view since it had been here for many generations suffering no harm.

Two of the smaller trunks are all that remain of this former giant.  We have no idea of what to do with the fallen parts.  There is a great deal of wood near the ground but red maple grows in a twisting manner making its firewood difficult to split.  Working among three sections that have yet to find the ground would entail considerable risk.  Nature will be allowed to follow its course here and these tree sections will become part of the forest floor.  We will watch with interest to see what grows in the former shade of a true giant.