The smell of sweet sap
grows stronger daily as I drive past
where council workers
are clearing toppled trees
that came down with half the hillside
after the last big rains.
It used to be a quarry.
Boulders fell down too.
When the clear-up began,
orange earth movers crawling about
half way up the hill
looked like matchbox toys.
Today it was all smooth.
By late afternoon
even the sap smell had gone.
Now this patch of hillside
has no trees at all, not one. It looks as if
Little by little we lose beautiful places. I hope they replant for the next generations.
ReplyDeleteOMG, it is happening Everywhere! Our hillsides have been logged to death, when the rains come, the hillsides slide down into our water source - for THREE YEARS our district has had a boil water advisory. And still the clearcutting goes on. Argh.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the need to clear away fallen trees. Never have. They do no harm and provide refuge. But people must clean, eh?
ReplyDeleteI wish I had taken photos, Pearl, and then you would understand in this case. Not only many huge trees but also a number of boulders and heaps of dirt and smaller stones landed at the bottom of a sheer, almost vertical hill. They landed on the footpath of a major road, and how they didn't end up on the road itself, or on any of the nearby buildings, is something of a miracle. It is lucky that the road was floded and impassable at the time, or someone would surely have been hurt or killed. As for shelter, the whole mess would have provided not only an obstacle but a continuing danger of further dislodgement.
ReplyDeleteoh goodness...so sad when they cut down all the trees..wondering why they do such things...
ReplyDeleteI must make it clear, they weren't cutting down trees but cutting up all the uprooted ones into manageable pieces for removal.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is what happens when we are too tidy for our own good.
ReplyDelete