Thousands of Trees Killed by New York Tornadoes

[Faygo Kid]

Source: New York Times

Some were more than a century old but still sturdy and doing their jobs. Many others were young and willowy, just getting going. Some of them were inscrutable; no one truly knew them or how they got there. But others felt like old friends. They were wonderful for their blissful shade, to climb, to simply stare at and admire.

They were the most visible evidence of the fleeting but brutal storm that barged through New York City on Thursday evening: the ravaged trees.

There was a beloved scarlet oak that had stood forever in a farm family’s cemetery in Queens. There was a Callery pear that parrots preferred on a street in Brooklyn. Trees that had stories to them that were now prematurely finished.

The tragedy of the storm, which meteorologists said Friday included two tornadoes, was Aline Levakis, 30, from Mechanicsburg, Pa., the sole person to die, when a tree, as it happened, hit her car on the Grand Central Parkway in Queens. . . .

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/nyregion/18trees.html?hp

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There are many kinds of sadness right now in this country. This one, like so many others, touched me.

[Bobbieo]

1. This is sad.! I watched one beatutiful tree in a video that was being

viciously torn apart in the wind.

[eleny]

2. It hit the neighborhood in Queens where I grew up, Woodhaven

I saw some pictures taken in Forest Park, a lovely park with a mixed woods forest of trees. We used to go mushroom picking there when I was a child many times after it rained. Us kids pretty much grew up rambling those woods. I hope it didn't get hit too hard up there but will have to wait to hear after friends can take some pictures.

[boppers]

3. So sad for New York.

We'll miss Bragdon (A LOT), but it sounds like folks need him there.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/source_metro_chief_david_bragd.html

[madmax]

4. This was done by a force of nature.

I fought to save a few trees from an idiotic homeowner who was too lazy to rake leaves. I begged him to leave just one, it was just about 2' from our property line. Tons of leaves fell into my yard each fall. I didn't care, I loved that tree! I offered to maintain the tree and rake the leaves on his property. No.

The tree was a healthy oak. I don't now how old it was but, I measured the diameter of the stump after they cut it down and it was over 4' Total trees he cut down 17 - total left 0. We put our house up for sale and move to NC within 6 months. I'm so happy here.

I heard 2 men comment on the stump and say, 'damn, that tree must have been a sapling when Lincoln was President.' Forgive me Mother Nature, I tried.

[Lorien]

5. Sounds like the property owner behind me

the landlord who owns the apartments behind me cut down ten huge century (or more) old live oaks when one of them dropped a branch onto the corner of one of his buildings. The trees were massive and had totally blocked the view of that hideous apartment complex, but now that's all that I see in my backyard; yellow concrete blocks and blinding security light pointed out onto an empty parking lot. I can here the freeway now too, and I really couldn't when all those mature oaks were there. No doubt that landlord asshole was a Repug. NO respect for nature whatsoever!

[madmax]

7. Terrible - what dumb sob.

That's pretty similar to what happened to us. The view was a moonscape with 2 ugly buildings. The kicker is - the previous spring I had just coughed up a lung for a beautiful stone paver patio and landscaping. The yard was small and yet it cost a tidy sum.

After the butcher cut down all the trees, I had the landscaper come back and plant several LARGE Ocober Glory Maples which are fast growing and flowering plums. That helped a little but, I was disgusted by then and not having loved the house from day one and my husbands company went belly up it was the perfect opportunity to leave NJ.

I know exactly how you feel :hug:

[Hissyspit]

6. First thing I tweeted yesterday to Jeremy Scahill when he tweeted about the tornado

as it was happening was "It's a shame about the trees."

(Not that I know he read it or not. I also said 'Welcome to my youth in Arkansas.')

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. They'll become furniture and other useful objects.

Saplings will be planted in their place.

The trees in NYC aren't "nature", they are outdoor decor.

[Odin2005]

9. They are "nature" in their own way

They provided food and shelter for countless organisms, each tree is a little ecosystem in it's own right.

The whole notion our society has that divides "nature" from "civilization" is part of the problem. We are part of nature.

We still have hundreds, if not thousands, of old American Elm trees here in Fargo, and it's always sad to see them having to cut down another tree killed by Dutch Elm Disease. Many of the older residential areas here look almost like a forest in which human civilization is interspersed, unlike the new subdivisions with have no life, no soul.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. So is an oil rig.

I fully agree that urban trees make life better for the human inhabitants, but that tree was chosen and planted there by some person. The only source of that "life and soul" is age.

I love urban landscaping, and I really love seeing it put to use, but there's almost nothing natural about it.

[Odin2005]

11. Many of those trees support migrant birds.

Their leaves feed the larval stage of many insects, including butterflies and moths. This is exactly what I mean by not diving "nature" and "civilization". Sure, the trees are planted by humans, but they support countless wild animals. Human planting can be seen as just another dispersal mechanism, albeit one that is a bit too good, threatening ecosystems with invasive species.

[Lorien]

12. No, they won't

millions of trees came down here in Florida in 2003 during three major hurricane. They were piled up in County fairgrounds and torched. They ARE nature-they clean the air, offer shade and habitat to wildlife. The unnatural elements are all man made.

[MellowDem]

13. No offense, but this doesn't make me sad...

This is just nature and not something that humans can't control. It's the things we do control that usually make me sad.