About trees falling
I live in a heavily forrested area. The trees are mainly California Redwoods, Douglas Firs, Tannoaks, Bay Laurels and a few Madrones here and there.
There are, of course, always things falling from the sky. Usually just leaves and branches and cones.
But the other night, right around midnight, I hear a really, REALLY loud crash right outside my window (I had been awake). A tall--at least 100 foot--fir tree had fallen from the hillside next to me, and the top crashed onto my patio. It was neither raining nor windy at the time, but we have been having plenty of that this year so the ground is well saturated.
Amazingly, it missed my house by 1 foot. And my car by 6 feet. So, while it destroyed quite a few things I had outdoors (tables, chairs, fencing, my pressure washer wahhh), it was obviously not as bad as it might have been. Six hours prior both my dog and I had been outside right there (ironically, working on the exact fence that got demolished).
So, while before I was *highly* attuned to the local trees--watching for the signs (who has ivy or fungus growing up the trunk, whose roots are close to the surface, guessing which would fall next, that sort of thing)--*every* tree around me now is highly suspect! There are at least a dozen massive trees that, if they fall, will completely destroy my home. I think I might become really paranoid, thinking that trees are going to be falling all around me now. We just got another storm and at least a couple more are due over the next week.
I'm torn between thinking that the likelihood of another tree falling and hitting me/my dog/car/house is really low now, and thinking that the risk is even higher now.
For those of you who live in similar environments, how do you mentally manage it?
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I have had ‘anxiety’ about our trees for years & we have had quite a few fall!
2 large white pines demolished part of our house during Sandy. One 140ft. pin oak fell, causing more damage(but, that provided us with 10 years worth of firewood 😉
. And, there are 4 huge tulip poplars (each with a girth of > 12 ft.) that could crush our house.
I love them all! And, for some reason, I have stopped worrying so much- perhaps because I’m getting older! ( btw, The guy who lived here 50 years before us was an arborist & he planted some beautiful trees).
