Today while stuffing envelopes in my office, my student worker and I heard a loud buzzing and engine roaring. Looking out our windows, this is what we saw. That's the back of the only gas station in College Place (Shell Station), and they are starting work to expand the convenience store and deli part of the place. Apparently this means cutting down a tree that was quite obviously there LONG before the station was, and if you look closely at its location, it's not actually in the way, and it wouldn't take a ton more thinking to figure out how to arrange the expansion plans to incorporate the beautiful tree. Many people enjoyed eating under this gorgeous giant, and I was extremely saddened and upset to see them destroying it in less than a day. And destroy it they did.
My student worker, Sarah, decided she wanted to know how old the tree was. I mentioned that the only way she could know is to count the rings. So...she went and asked for a piece of the trunk so she could do just that. When she asked, shouting over the noise of the cherry-picker and other machinery, the guy looked at her like she was crazy. "Why do you want it?" he asked. She said, "To have...and to count the rings." He shrugged, grabbed his chainsaw, and went back up to the top of the trunk to cut her a slice. In spite of its thin-ness, it was quite a heavy piece of wood! It needs to dry out, but we do intend to find out how old this tree was. For now, its one spared section is sitting in our office.
Marred my day as well. What were they thinking....if we could only run the world!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I hate to see good old trees cut down. And to put up a building none-the-less. To paraphrase Joyce Kilmer, "I think that I shall never see a building lovely as a tree."
ReplyDeleteMany years ago my dad had to cut down a huge tree at the house where I grew up. I still miss that tree.
So, have you counted the rings to see how old it was? (sorry I had to put that in past tense)