I frequently go for walks. If I can't get to a forested park to hike I'll walk around the neighborhood where I live. And usually take routes that will take me down streets with large numbers of trees. i love trees. For whatever reason, seeing them, walking below them, enjoying their beauty. It relaxes and rejuvenates me. Gives me more of an appreciation for life. And lately it's getting harder and harder to find streets with trees on them. I'd estimate since my family moved here 25 years ago about 1/4 to 1/3 of the trees have been removed. Majority of which were those lining the streets. In 1996 parts of the neighborhood were a virtual forest. One end of my street was lined with Cherry Blossoms. Many houses had huge pairs of Elms or Oaks from 1969 when the neighborhood was built.

On the one hand I can understand if a tree is rotten, damaged, or dying, it being removed. But on the other the trees are rarely replaced. I'd say they're replaced maybe 5% of the time, almost always with a much much smaller species. Usually a Dogwood or similar species. A sad replacement for a towering majestic Oak or Elm. The variety is also shrinking. The builders went wild with the landscaping in 1969. Nature was in. People were fleeing to suburbs from the bleak, polluted and often plant-bare American cities(They fled for other reasons too, crime, riots, etc). And so new developments were becoming little oasis of trees and gardens. Thus the buildings put in not just a huge number of them, but a vibrant variety as well. Everything from flowering Crabapple to Blue Spruce to Silver Maple. The few new trees planted lack variety to an extreme degree. If it's not a Dogwood its a Maple. That's it. No Oaks, no Sycamores, no Birch trees, no Sassafras, no Norway Spruce, no Tulip Poplar, Cherry Blossoms, etc.

I know recently another of the old Elms (my personal favorite of all the trees here. Still haven't forgiven my parents for removing ours) has been cut on the street behind us, and so have been avoiding that street. Used to be 7 of them in a neat row spread among the front yards of 4 houses. Down to 3 now. Every time it happens though its this instinctive gut wrenching response. Never gets easier. Almost like losing a family member. Nothing else upsets me more.

I apologize for sounding like a repeating record. Just need to get that off my chest.

Anyway I'm using it as inspiration. I've been saving every bit I can to get a place in the woods surrounded by trees, somewhere where I don't have to worry about trees being removed. This neighborhood feels so barren and empty these days. Doesn't help that even the houses no longer have the bright late 1960s tones they used. Shades of moss Green, Harvest Gold, Fall Red, Navy Blue, replaced by beige, white or gray. Even used to be pink ones in the next neighborhood. People don't want color anymore though, nor do they want nature. Everything is man made materials, plastics, even the stone is fake.

I also should mention I don't hate the American suburbs. Given plenty of plantlife the older suburbs can be beautiful places. And there's no place to have all of my gardens in the city in the backyard of a rowhouse. So I'm glad to live in a country where I'm not limited to just city or country.