Be Careful What You Wish For..

When I moved in my home in 1993, I was disappointed to discover that the huge west-facing window in the living room never got any full sun. Being a Horticulturist, I have hundreds of houseplants and this window should have been an ideal location for most of them. However, across the road was an old-growth stand of huge white pine and maple trees with a sprinkling of birch mixed in, that ran for a quarter of a mile to the south before opening up to several acres of farm land. The houses went up around the trees and they continued to grow over the years. Some of the old white pines were over 120 feet in height with a diameter of four feet. They towered over the houses lining the opposite side of the road. As soon as the sun came around to the southwest, the trees blocked the light coming in to my house on that side. I had to put low light plants that in front of the west-facing windows, and often thought how nice it would be for some of those trees to, maybe, disappear.

The property across the road is flat for 50 yards then goes at a 45 degree incline for about 50 feet to where the house stands. In this area, many of the old trees remained after the developers built the houses around them. Most of the houses in that area had several of the old trees surrounding them for shade that were part of the original forested area.

Then one night at 2 a.m., I awoke to a horrible sound of a tree falling. I went to the window to discover that one of those huge pines had snapped and fallen on to my rail fence and driveway in the front of my home. Luckily, the cars were farther up the drive and not hit by the huge tree. It fell across the electrical wires and blocked the road. As I ran outside to survey the damage, I saw a car come up the road and slam on its brakes just before hitting the tree. I immediately called 911 to report the downed tree so the police could block the road.

The tree fell in the fall without any provocation. No high wind, no heavy rain, no washing out of the soil around the tree, it just fell over. The next morning when I examined the tree I could see how rotten the inside wood was and how the carpenter ants turned most of it into saw dust. The trunk was so week that it fell over form its own weight. It was cut down, taken away, and that was that, or so I thought.

No too long after that, the owner of the property across the road seemed to think that the fallen tree was a warning and he decided to have all of the trees cut out of this area of about an acre so no others would fall on my house. He had an older friend come with his chain saw and begin cutting away. As I said, some of the trees in this stand were 50 to 60 years old. The trunks were huge and this was not a job for an armature.

He cut away and when he came to a broken trunk that was still partially attached to the bottom of the trunk, he cut in the middle of the part that was leaning. He was almost through with the cut when all of a sudden, his chain saw flew out of his hands, he went flying and landed ten feet behind the tree and two feet from his raging chain saw that was still cutting! He then got back up and began cutting again.

I watched as he cut several trees out. The ones that were extremely high, he tied a rope to and pulled over with his truck after cutting into the trunk. One almost hit the truck. He continued this for several days. Then one afternoon as I was walking my dog by the owner's front yard, I notice this older gentleman on top of a ladder against a tree. He was on the top rung holding his chain saw above his head and cutting away. Just as I had passed, I heard a terrible crash and when I looked back, the ladder was on top of the gentleman and the chain saw was still cutting a few feet away from him. I did not see him get up this time. He was taken away by ambulance.

Soon after, a new younger man appeared with tree cutting equipment and continued where the older gentleman left off. He continued to clearcut the entire area, taking way 12 huge loads of tree trunks in log haulers. It was pristine wood and was worth a substantial amount of money. It took several weeks for the trees to be removed from inside that area. The older, huge pines and maples remained lining the property all around the several acres along the road.

Not three weeks later in mid October, a micro burst from a wind storm hit the area where the trees once stood and blew out several of the trees that lined the road. The wind shattered them and they blew out over my property, this time taking down several wires and breaking a pole ¼ mile down the road. Folks were without power for 18 hours. We, however, still had power as the trees hit the wires on the other side of the pole, and did not disturb the ones that came to our house. It seemed that after taking out all of the trees in the center of the stand, the wind block that once deflected the airflow no longer existed. The area caught the wind and amplified it as the storm passed through.

When town officials came to view the damage, they were furious over the clear cutting of all the trees in the area. It seems no one applied for a permit and no one followed the government regulations for cutting out an area that size. The owner had many fines to pay.

Then two weeks after the clean up of all the debris, another windstorm hit the area, this time taking out one of the remaining tall pines that landed on the roof of the property owner's house. The town then came in and cut out many more trees that lined the road surrounding the property. Hopefully, this would divert any further damages from falling trees.

This all took place over three years ago and things were looking up for my plants. More light is now coming in and I can have any plant in front of these windows because of the increase in light. There were still several tall pines that blocked the light in the winter, but enough came through to keep the plant alive until the days became longer.

Then in May of this year, 2010, we had another windstorm of winds gusts of over 75 miles an hour as a thunderstorm raged through our area. More trees came down in that area, but not falling across the road. We lost our 100-year-old sugar maple that fell over from one of the gusts. It was set back in the center of the property and did little damage when it fell. ( See "Saying Goodby to an Old Friend".) The area across the road was becoming even more open as trees snapped half way and fell over hitting other trees. Just minor damage from this storm.

This area that held so many trees travels along the road for about ¼ mile in front of several houses that are set back higher on the property. Like the house directly across the road, these other houses rise above an incline to sit higher and farther back from the road. The front is filled with old growth trees and heavily wooded. This area, covering several properties is were most of the trees fell during that storm. The damage was messy but no real problems arose.

Not a week later, another group of thunderstorms hit the area and several micro bursts slammed into the trees at 10:30 P.M. on May 18, 2010. The day had been brutally hot with temps reaching 100 degrees F. that day. In New England, at this time of year, these temperatures are rare. The storm originated in Canada and swept directly south with sustained winds reaching 100 miles and hour. It hit the area with a vengeance. I saw trees blowing vertical across the road as I tried desperately to close the windows throughout the house. I could hear trees snapping all around. The lightning was like several strobe lights flashing constantly. Oddly enough, there was absolutely no sound of thunder. The torrential rain blew horizontal across the windows and marble-sized hale struck the roof. The winds lasted for 35 minutes and then everything stopped as the storm continued south.

The resulting damage was unbelievable. I went out to witness the road covered in trees that lined the entire length of the wooded area on the opposite side. They were running north to south in line where the wind blew them down the road closing off all access. Huge trees had exploded within the wooded area and thrown about like tooth picks. For hours that night the town had crews out clearing the road so emergency vehicles could get through.

I am in western Massachusetts where violent weather is almost nonexistent. We usually have thunder storms come through in summer, blizzards in winter, but the storms are few and far between. The Berkshire mountains to the west usually break up most of the sever storms before they hit this area. Not this time. This line of storms came directly from due north.

The next day when I went out to view the damage, I was amazed how the so many of the trees exploded across the road. All along the wooded area to the south of my home, trees with diameters of three to four feet were snapped in half. We were hit by several micro burst where mini tornados bounced over the ground for several miles all through this area. Huge maples and pines were uprooted and fell across electrical lines taking down four poles. We were without power for two days. It seemed that this area of Country Club Road and Brookside were the hardest hit in the entire area where the storm passed through.

Because there was no power, neighbors were out surveying the damage. I love to be out and I walk one of my huskies almost daily. I hardly ever see any of my neighbors outside any time of year. This storm was as destructive as a class one hurricane, but luckily no one was injured. Damage to homes, including ours where the wind blew off some of our roof, was extensive and clean up is still going on, after almost a month.

The property one lot south of the one directly across the road had the most extensive damage to her home from the huge trees around her house. She decided to have most of the trees taken down with in her property and a local professional tree lumber mill came in and cut out most of the trees, including the huge pines that threatened my home and the next two to the south along the road. Now the sun pours in through the west side of my home all afternoon until sunset. I could have not asked for a better solution to my light problems. This is, of course, is a most unusual way to get what I had hoped for in terms of more afternoon light entering my home. I can only wonder what is next in the way of storms for this area.