And the tree came down

When we moved in, we knew we had a tree in the front yard that was not happy. An 80' tall pine (I thought Scotch pine; turns out it was a Lodgepole) was green only at the top. Last year it looked even sadder, and this year, it was officially covered in dead needles. If it fell, it could hit the house, so we had to remove it, and today, the tree dudes came and took it down.

Karen took about 200 photos of the process, but remarkably, missed the dramatic part where the top 30' came down onto our yard, knocking over one of our metal sculptures in the process.

Unhappy tree. Tree dude climbing it near bottom

Lower branches gone. Tree dude about to lop the top

The final cut, and...

...it comes down...

...landing on a prepared space. Almost.

The rest of the tree was taken down 6' piece by 6' piece.

The last cuts, then... 

...PUSH... 

...and it falls

Being wildlife lovers, we left a "snag" -- the stump of the tree standing tall. Birds like snags, especially owls and woodpeckers, since the dead tree will soon attract bugs. Our snag is about 20' tall. They cut the top about level which allows water to run off (slowing rot), but is flat enough to act as a nesting platform.

Carefully cutting the top

The tree was a victim of pine beetle. Pine beetles are bad but natural and native. They attack weak trees. The dead giveaway to a pine beetle attack is a blue ring around the outside rings of the tree's innards.

Blue ring visible

In short, this tree died at least 5 years ago. Pine beetles basically kill a tree in one season, then move on. We had hoped we could revive it with water and TLC. Alas, 'twas not the case.

Everything about taking it down came off pretty well. There's a baby spruce tree hiding under the leftover logs that probably isn't happy. The main loss was that when the tree top came crashing down, our stump with the metal Standing Hand sculpture on it got knocked over.

Stump on the yarrow. Sculpture to the right

We have to figure out how to re-erect the Hand. We will probably attach it to a portion of the tree's stump, which will last a few years, anyway.
We were sad to lose a tree, but it was his time.