This Just In – In Chapel Hill, we do love our trees. We’re known for hugging them, but the fact is, sometimes they don’t hug us back.
A couple of years ago, a surprisingly severe storm came through here around New Years. We had been keeping an eye on a very well-established maple tree that was very close to the front of our house and had dropped a limb, piercing the roof. Another was broken off, entangled 50 feet up the tree, causing concern for the grandkids’ sandbox below.
That was enough. An arborist confirmed it had to come down as worse events were in its future. I loved the tree, but I loved my new roof just a little more. We had the take-down scheduled, but first came this thunderstorm overnight.
We heard a boom in the wee hours of the morning and thought something might have come down. We looked out at the old maple and she was still standing. When our grandsons arrived the next morning, the three-year-old called to me from the front door to come see right away … a 60-foot pine tree on the ground on the other end of the house, narrowly missing the corner.
“J-Ma, if that had hit your house, you’d be dead!” said Winter. He wasn’t wrong (and somehow was cute in making his declaration). This storm had snapped this tree off at about 15 feet up its trunk, spun it around and pounded into the ground with such force that it slung mud up all over the side of the house.
If anyone had pulled up into my driveway with a bulldozer offering to clear the front yard of our dozens of hardwoods that morning I would have said yes in a hot second. I know, I know … I could lose my I-love-Chapel-Hill street cred.
The sight of that giant tree that almost tore off the end my house (with me in it) brought me right back to the morning after Hurricane Fran. That morning, we had some trees uprooted (that fell away from our house) and our neighbor’s tree fell across our driveway and landed on our roof. When it came to removal, that became our tree when it landed, so we got the resulting firewood.
Driving along NC86 from I-40 to Hillsborough, I am focused on the all-too-close relationship between power lines and trees. There are multiple instances of trees leaning into and resting ON the distribution lines along that road.
I have made attempts to get Piedmont Electric to preventively trim and remove many of these, with no success. Likewise, in the last year, I’m among many customers who have on a sunny, clear afternoon, had my power go off for no obvious reason.
My friends on social media speculate … well, it has been windy this afternoon and they’re doing all that work on I-40.
I think we should reasonably expect that electricity can be constant through such “events.” So I’ll just say to Piedmont Electric … it’s not snowy or icy or pouring down rain. Trim those trees along NC86 – they run right up to your front door in Hillsborough. You can thank me later, after the kids’ first snow day.
I do feel sad to see some of the many instances of clear cutting around town for the sake of new development. Yes, I get a little wistful about how that changes the look and feel of the town. But when I think of how this works out with the expense of very selective tree removal and the risk to structures, it gives me a different perspective.
I want to see beautiful healthy trees in the spring. Nothing is more invigorating than the bright new green of my tree-lined street in mid-April. Birds singing, worms worming, birds nesting in my plants and baby deer being dropped in my yard … it’s wonderful and I’m already looking forward to it.
First, though, we need to get through chilly winter nights and some weather that we know is coming along this month and next. Trim the branches, store some water, get fresh batteries for the flashlights. Easy as one, two, tree.
(Piedmont Electric has published a response to this piece. Click here to read it)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.
Comments on Chapelboro are moderated according to our Community Guidelines