In the eye of the beholder: Value of old trees

Whenever my husband suggests the possibility of us finding a different house to live in rather than renovating the one we have, I always get a little pit in the bottom of my stomach. It’s not so much the fact that the location here is perfect: quiet and un-trafficked at the end of a cul-de-sac, a quick drive to everything, and a stone’sthrow away from many beautiful places to walk. It’s not even the memories.

What keeps me tied to this place is the big pin oak tree out back. This old giant, easily seventy feet tall, has dominated one corner of the property for years. However, if you could see the tree, you’d be surprised that this is what keeps me here, because the tree is easily three-quarters dead. But that’s the point.

There are many things that money can’t buy. One of them is mature trees — unless you purchase a property containing them. Sure, you can buy an eight- to ten-foot tree and have it installed on your property, but it will still be decades before it reaches maturity. Similarly, another thing you can’t buy is an old, dead tree. Unlike a young, live tree, you can’t buy a young dead tree and have it planted; there is no such thing, and who would sell them anyway? No, an old, dead tree takes even longer to acquire than a mature live one.

Before you stop reading — because certainly I must have gone loony — look at it from this perspective: I love watching all the birds in our yard. These include nimble little nuthatches, dapper downy woodpeckers, and the extravagantly-scarlet-headed redbellied woodpeckers. Where do these birds live? They live in holes, high up, that they’ve drilled out of the dead trunk of that oak tree. The rotting wood also attracts insects, which attract more birds. The pileated woodpecker I see occasionally is one of those. Smaller birds that I see here, such as house wrens, chickadees, and bluebirds, may also be nesting in the holes created by the woodpeckers. Without that tree, they’d lose that prime nesting opportunity, and it would be bye-bye, birdies.

There’s so much value to dead trees; according to the National Wildlife Federation, “snags” provide habitat for more than 1,000 species of wildlife nationwide. But just recently, I’ve been stunned to discover how little some people seem to value even live trees; trees that supply beauty, cooling shade, and life-essential oxygen — free of charge! In the third week of the stay-at-home order, day after day was filled with the mind-numbing, headache-inducing, heart-wrenching noise of saws and grinders, as one tree after another was taken down: I counted eleven among twentythree houses.

It turned out that one neighbor had hired an Amish man to do a tree removal. And when the next-door neighbor discovered how relatively inexpensive it was, he opted to hire the same guy to take down a tree or two. Five more neighbors followed suit. The sad thing: only three of the trees were actually dead. In fact, one of my friends tried to convince her next-door-neighbor to take down the huge, healthy tulip tree at the border edge of their properties— a magnificent tree, and possibly the most beautiful on our street. And was disappointed when she didn’t.

If people are so eager to remove living trees — because they’ve gotten tired of raking leaves in the fall, or of picking up twigs and branches after a storm, or whatever the reason

— why would they leave a dead tree standing, one that occasionally drops whole limbs?

The oak tree in our yard is so incredibly valuable in its old age. I consider it a sacred honor to be able to see it continue, for as long as I’m able. This is why I want to stay.

Note: For more information on the value of snags visit https://pss. uvm.edu/ppp/articles/snags.html.

Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s book for children and families, Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets, is available on Amazon, along with her new companion field journal, Explore Outdoors, at Amazon.com/author/ pamelabaxter.