They're cutting down trees. Not nuisance weed trees that have sprung up uninvited, but huge ancient eucalyptuses with trunks the diameter of a full harvest moon. Well, maybe not ancient since the eucalyptus does have a propensity for quick growth, but with trunks that size they're at least pretty damned old. Their trunks wore the pealing bark that is common to their species, but they were gently twisted; looking rather like giant natural barber poles. Do they grow that way naturally or did the Santa Anna’s twirl them that way over time?
This is California so you know that these trees are being sacrificed to the god of road widening. Heaven forbid they should jog the road to the left for a quarter mile and then back straight. Nothing, damn it, stands in the way of progress.
On the way out to drop Aidric off at school we were stopped by the traffic crew as only one lane was open and traffic was taking turns using it. I saw the big giant aerial truck and the chipper and other assorted machinery, but thought that ComEd was just performing some tree trimming to keep the power lines clear and safe. (as eucalypti also have a propensity for losing good stout branches in a strong Santa Anna.) On the way to pick Aidric up however, I saw the stripped bare carcasses of the first 3, of the 10 or so, trees lying on the side of the road. All of their branches and smaller bits having been fed to the chipper and the massive 30 or 40 foot trunks laid out and cut into 4 or 5 foot length. Their elephantine diameters preventing them from being casually tossed into the chipper, these pieces were being loaded into dump trucks to be shipped…where? Is there a gargantuan chipper somewhere?
It’s too sad, by the end of the week that shady quarter mile will be glaring and naked in the sun and that lovely stretch of road will look like city instead of bucolic country side.
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