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Archive for April, 2009

It was a really wicked winter for the trees. It started in September with the remnants of Hurricane Ike. We were hit with a wind storm that downed trees and knocked out the electrical power for a week. Then came “The Ice Storm of 2009” which started on January 26th. It was really horrible for trees and people. So extensive was the damage of that storm that today, April 3, 2009, piles of broken tree limbs still line the streets of Louisville waiting for our sluggish city government to pick them up. And, if that were not enough, a few weeks after the ice storm, we had another wind storm, and it was fierce enough to ruin the roof on my house.

The ice storm was particularly vicious. Over seventy people lost their lives in this storm. The electrical grid in Kentucky was knocked out and parts of the state remained without electrical power for weeks afterward. The National Guard was mobilized to open highways and bring in essential supplies. It’s bad to be without electricity, but it’s really bad to be without it when it’s well below freezing and the roads are closed with downed trees, power lines and ice.

In all of this destruction and natural mayhem, no one was concerned about the trees. The trees were part of the problem: they fell on the power lines, on houses and roads. In the widespread power outages, fallen trees were a significant factor. It was hard to get around town because so many trees were down and blocking the roads. I’m sure that at some level people were mad at the trees, if it’s possible to be mad at a plant. A lot of large trees were cut down after the ice storm finally lifted just because they held the possibility of falling in the next storm.

When the ice finally melted enough that we could get the dogs over to George Rogers Clark Park, the place we like to walk them, the scene was heart-breaking. The trees looked like they had been hit with an artillery barrage. Many of them had their upper third broken off. Huge limbs were down everywhere. The park had been hit hard. It would never be the same in my lifetime.

I don’t tend to form emotional relationships with plants, but I spend a lot of time with these trees. I walk my dogs almost every day around these trees. I have photographed them through the changes of seasons. I have dozens of disks of photographs of these trees because when I want to test something new, it’s easy to grab the camera when I take the dogs for their walk. I have so many photos of these trees that I began to feel just a bit silly for taking so many pictures of them; now, I’m glad I shot every one and wish I would have shot more.

Many of the trees are badly injured, and I wonder if they will die later from the multiple fractures of their limbs and bark. I’m sure I’m not the only one grieving for the trees, but with all of the messed-up stuff that is going on, I’m also sure that the trees aren’t very high on anyone’s list of things to be upset about. Yesterday, the mayor’s office announced that 10,000 truck loads of tree debris had already been hauled off, and it is still standing in piles all over the place. If they get it all picked up by Derby, the first Saturday in May, they will be lucky.