Bout three weeks ago I mentioned a possible score for any central Ct hoarders. The woman had been telling me about this section of road that was being cut. Well yesterday I had the need to drive down this section of road. A rural route (149) This specific section 2.3 miles designated a scenic road. Right along the Ct River but nothing real special as in water views. More a stretch of historical homes then a stretch of of of nothing. It was the nothing I always found pleasant to drive down. Steep cliff to one side and steep hill to the other, no homes, no buildings. As such the trees on either side of this road had been unmolested since dinosaurs roamed the earth. No one ever logged those hills Maybe one of the last pieces of real old growth forest left in Ct. Always a nice shady cool part of the drive as those old trees created a full canopy over the road way up high. You seldom see things like that. Many probably never notice. You guessed it. They came in with telebooms and clear cut it all down. I didn’t stop and survey the damage. Not a safe place to stop but it was bad enough just driving by. Everything on the uphill side was reduced to wood chips. On the downhill side you can see the log butts of huge healthy trees just sticking up over the guardrails. Not all, just some. A grove of Beech trees now upside down and in a clump most noticeable. There was always one White Oak close to the road that I admired every time I went by. Not a redwood perhaps but you could cut a hole in it for a motorcycle to pass thru. I’m just struck by the fact someone with the power to make such decisions somehow thought that scenic tunnel of giant trees would look better as a desert. Soon to be weeds, and mudslides. They did leave one big sycamore Rant over PS, if you ever thought the Ct contingency of wood hoarders were a little weird or perhaps unscrupulous in our endeavors,,,,just remember, our state is run by idiots that shouldn’t have the power to govern a tree much less the people in it.
What gets me is it was one of the few healthy roadsides in this state. No gypsy moth devastation, no Ash trees. Some of those trees may have been there since the pilgrims. Never saw falling branches as an issue there. Dare I say those trees were healthy and happy. Pure unmolested nature doing what it does best. Our state forests were barren when these trees were there.
I am SO with you on this, makes me so dang mad. This happened to me around here where a landowner who I went to high school with and is very wealthy and has never set foot in any woods, much less his inherited own, had them clearcut my most favorite canopy road around here. If he wanted to clearcut the rest of the tract, I didn't care, but that one or two rows of trees on that road... perfect, shaded canopy that provided a dark tunnel at high noon... WHY cut it? I have enjoyed that stretch of road for decades. You can bet it never dawned on him because he never gets out of his house to stop counting his money. Your deal sounds worse. If that is a government entity that did it, I would have to schedule a time slot at the next town council meeting or whatever council it is to give my two cents worth. If one is an elected official, I'd campaign against him/her.
I agree needlessly cutting and going way overboard is a terrible thing to do. At some point the trees could also put people, property and utilities at risk that could start a fire. I am not familiar with the area you are speaking about so I could be wrong. One example from my neck of the woods which we could just chalk up to being in place in the wrong time. Local father and son killed when tree crushes their SUV southeast of Athens Every time I am driving on a road surrounded by tall trees and think of this instance it makes me uneasy. Maybe it was just their time, who knows. In this instance nobody did anything about the trees on the side of the road. I don't bring this up to argue, but to bring another point of view. This was a freak accident that is so rare, but it none the less did occur.
They probably had a public hearing beforehand and no one showed up. Course, not too many people go looking in the places they announce there is going to be a public hearing for objections. Here they have to put some of these in the local papers public announcements sections and some they only have to put in the town web site. And the town website can be awful to navigate sometimes. Some things are on the front page and some are (conveniently) not.
I certainly understand the safety aspect. Everyone in Connecticut is now aware of it. Between the gypsy moths and EAB it’s a hazard to leave your driveway. Dead trees everywhere. They have been cutting like crazy, which is prudent with dead trees roadside. Either the gypsy moths never hit this section or the trees were so old and healthy they just shrugged it off. Heck my neighbor has 20 dead ash still standing on the road. Because the power lines end at my house the utilities bypass them. I cringe driving under those things Eventually one will knock down the power lines. But it’s only a few customers. Roll of the dice.
"They" do the same thing around here. My freaking favorite is when they clear along the roadside or field of healthy trees, then they come in and plant new trees. What the hell?
They cleared some trees along a road here, but thise were leaning over the road and needed to go. Wood isn't usually wasted around here. They leave logs or bucked firewood along the road.
Agree there is a beautiful 1/2 mile section on way to my drive that has no sunshine on a summer day.. love it
That’s a real shame Joe. That whole area by the opera house and down to Gillette Castle is gorgeous. I’m kind of glad I’ve only passed through a few times and don’t have too many memories attached to the place. Trees live on a different time scale than we do. It’s nothing for an oak to live a few centuries, silently watching generations of people come and go. Then all it takes is one person with an idea in his head and those centuries are wiped out in a matter of hours. For all we can complain about CT, at least most of the forests that were clear cut for agriculture in the early days are reverting back to a natural state. It’s not going to happen in our lifetime, but under the right management practices, the old growth could return.
I've had a dead branch fall on a vehicle I was driving. It's a bit unsettling. Dented the roof a bit. I'd still vote to leave the trees up and take the risk.
You’d think our all knowing government would have some program that paid people not to do this to such special places! Sad to think of the generations of different owners who had the opportunity to do the same thing and chose not to. All undone! Unfortunately, our society treasures money above all! I feel the same way about the family farms of our nation. Kids who wanted nothing to do with the family farm or continuing the tradition, waiting for mom and dad to die so they can liquidate the farm. Obviously other factors have contributed to the death of the family farm, but frustrating to see one generation looking at things so differently than those before them. Just like the family farm, a forest like that won’t be coming back around any time soon, if ever!
Actually this is heading the other way. From the opera house north towards Moodus. We certainly have more trees now than 100 years ago, no doubt. You may find this of interest. In 1936 Ct did the first aerial photograph mapping of Ct. All those photos are still stored on a UConn server accessible to the public. Very interesting the changes since then. You can even choose to put 36 photos next to today’s imagery for comparison. Stumbled onto it when I was “surveying” our property lines on the computer.
Don’t get me going on a roll here. That appreciation for the family farm stuff is hitting real close to home LOL
Close to home for me too! That’s why I feel so strongly about it What ever happened to protecting something for the next generation? It’s what all the previous generations did? Ok, I’m done
As a Nutmegger I'm with you on this, and as an amateur historian I like to imagine how things were decades ago in my end of the state. If you look at pictures of Connecticut from the late 1800's to the early 19oo's, you'll see a minimal amount of trees in any outdoor photograph. We were an agrarian society that was primarily farmland, before our chief exports became traffic, insurance, and taxes. It was said that a squirrel could cross the state on the branches of American Chestnut trees without ever touching the ground, before disease and clear cutting took pretty much all of them. Over time our society changed and now our state is rife with trees of an unprecedented variety. Now, when I go for walks in the woods with my wife and dogs, and see the miles of stone walls that crisscross through the forest, I'm reminded that almost none of the trees around me existed when these walls were built. Humans have a relationship with trees, whether we're aware of it or not. I had tree in my backyard when I was a kid that I climbed countless times. It was a leaner, and one day I fell out of it, scraping myself up pretty good on the way down. My father cut it down after that and I missed it like an old friend. We curse trees when they wrong us, dropping leaves in the yard, falling where they're not supposed to, damaging property and blocking the way. But we love them when they benefit us, supplying us with lumber, shade, and warmth in the wintertime. Where am I going with this? The jury is out. Let's recap. 1. Yes, we're wood hoarders and we're weird. 2. Yes our state is run by idiots. Most states are. 3. That seriously sucks that those trees are gone now, but try to appreciate the ones that are still standing.
One of the cool things about the aerial 1936 aerial photographs is I could view the Meshomasic forest which is my playground the way it was then. You can more easily see the remnants of past civilization from a much earlier period than even 1936. Stonewalls more clearly defined. Fields not fully grown back in yet. I found some old homesteads I never knew were there.
We lived by road with a long decently steep slope, and ding dongs would go 55 despite the 35 mph signs. One curve was sloped the wrong way, drove that road for 21 years, we all know it's sloped opposite the curve. Teens crashed into a tree and died after speeding and bouncing of the curve. Bicycling was VERY prominent where I lived, scenic, so, they showed up in mass to deter getting that curve corrected and also banning salt/gravel and cal chloride along the reservoir road during the winter which was the northern parts commute to work so we all had to drive an extra 1/2 hour to get to work in the morning because they would close the gates. Because it was a lower grade road on the plow list and did not have street sweepers till later in the spring. Then they cut down like 100+ cottonwood trees down the road and no one said boo. HELLO? These had historical significance from the original Fort Collins Military Post! I got a huge cookie for a table or chopping block but it never came home They needed my truck at work and forklifted it out.
