Please Don’t Kill My Tree!
The Big Story
By Rick Boettger
What’s with killing all our trees if they’re “sick” or “dangerous”? I’m trying to save our gumbo limbo from the chain saw, whose sunburnt beauty I see every day out our dining room window.
My neighbors in my small condo association submitted an application to the Tree Commission to kill it. It was dropping leaves on the second floor deck and blocking a nice view out the third floor condo. Not the official reasons you can give for killing a tree. But it had enough damage to justify slaughtering it on the grounds it is “sick” and “dangerous.”
Geez Louise, I and most of my best friends are a bit “sick” and “dangerous.” I have been living with prostate cancer for years, and I’m not even having it taken out, much less opting for euthanasia. We can try to heal sickness or just live with it, not kill a living thing that is alive and still has a chance.
As for “dangerous,” EEK! We’re so scared the poor sick tree might blow over in a storm and—gasp! harm a piece of property! This crime against Mammon must be avoided at all costs—to the living gumbo limbo, in this case. The chance of damage to property, vs. the sure death of a living tree.
A friend of mine tried to get two unsightly native trees removed from his property on the grounds they were close enough to cause harm to his home in a hurricane. The Tree Commission quite rightly pointed out you could chop half of the trees in Key West based on that criterion. My giant sapodilla has, indeed, already caused over $10,000 in damage to our building during Wilma.
“Danger.” We live with it all the time. We scuba dive. Eat and drink too much. Jaywalk and run red lights. Don’t fasten our seat belts. Drive on two-lane roads at night. The mortal danger of a falling tree ranks below, I’m guessing, getting hit by lightning. So we are just talking about damage to our houses or cars if one falls.
And I say SO WHAT to your effing house or car compared to that living tree. Take my sapodilla. Nancy Forrester estimated it as 150 years old. It is 174 inches around. Anyone who has been to my house knows what an incredible, majestic creation it is. I joke about my “owning” the tree. For goodness’ sake, it was here a hundred years before me, and, Inshallah, will be for that long after I’m gone.
I “own” it only in the sense that, yes, I could KILL IT. But I, fortunately, revere the tree, as close to worshipping it as I do any physical thing, and consider myself its humble caretaker as I quickly pass through its long, slow life. I think it would be a terrible crime if I or its next “owner” after I die chose to kill it because it is “dangerous.” (Oh—by the way, it’s really “messy” as well, another capital offense to many.)
To me, my sapodilla is more valuable than our entire building. The building could be rebuilt in a year. My ‘dilly would take 100 years to recreate.
And yes, I am surely an extremist, but I think that tree’s life, its huge gentle spirit, is worth more than my very own.
So I am elated that our tree commission and arborist stand by my right to try to save my gumbo limbo. I’ve got to prove I am responsible for the “maintnenance” of it according to our Declaration of Condominium. Hooray for our tree people, especially Karen and Jo on the front lines! They will let you kill your own “sick” or “dangerous” tree if they and the Commission
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The full last sentence is:
They will let you kill your own “sick” or “dangerous” tree if they and the Commission approve, but they will not let your neighbors make that decision for you.
NO, no, and no! Glad the tree commission is siding with you, Rick! You have a yard to die for and to take either the gumbo limbo or the sapodilla would be a crime. That makes the property, and everyone who knows that yard, knows that fact. Keep right on fighting. One can always cut back branches, but to take the whole tree is preposterous. Who does that? Nonsense. Most people would give anything to have your sanctuary, which would not be one without the gumbo limbo and sapodilla! Soldier on, my friend!