It's a cliché, but it's true: You don't know what you have until it's gone.
For one person, that came in the form of losing a beloved neighborhood feature. They posted a photo in homage on the subreddit r/arborists, saying that it was "a goodbye to my favorite tree."
"I woke up this morning to find out that our favorite tree on our block is being removed," they wrote. "I don't even know what kind it is. What I do know is that it provided literally the best shade during the block party. … I know it's the tree my kid can ride his bike to. … I know it's stolen its fair share of kites, balloons and gliders, but we still loved it. I know I tripped over its roots too many times to count, but never once thought to cut it down."
Along with this sentimental tribute, they included the disheartening reason behind the loss.
"I asked why it was being taken down and was told 'it was leaning too much.' I didn't think I would be so upset about a tree being taken down. It feels like a piece of the neighborhood is going down," they wrote.
"Dang it looks perfectly healthy too," one commenter said.
Others had dealt with similar losses. One person shared: "An elm I grew up with was cut down a couple of years ago and it was healthy. … It was cut out of the misguided fear that it would fall on an empty single story concrete building with a rusty metal roof. I would have bulldozed the building way before I touched that tree."
It's all "money and fear, fear and money," they concluded.
Another shared a similarly infuriating situation about a tree near their gym. "One day it was gone. I asked the manager what happened to it and he said some lady had complained that her car always got tree sap on it whenever she parked there. The correct answer was 'don't park there' but no; he cut down the tree," they vented.
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More commenters called for fairer treatment of trees, particularly considering that they offer a number of direct benefits. These include shading, air filtration, carbon capture, wildlife habitat, erosion control, wind reduction, and more.
Spending time near trees has also been shown to improve both physical and mental health.
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