my favorite tree

We had a tree expert come look at my favorite tree today. A honking huge pine tree in our front yard. A couple of weeks ago I looked at it from an angle I hadn't seen before, and it seemed to be leaning to an alarming degree. Aiming at the neighbor's house. Actually the tree is so tall that if it fell the wrong way, it could take out the neighbor's house and maybe do some damage to the next one.

So I called a tree expert to take a look at it. I had several recommendations for tree guys who can take a tree out, but I wanted a trained arborist who could diagnose the tree and suggest options for treatment or removal. I found an arborist society web site that listed local members, and from there chose Bartlett. They were great! I called them on Friday, they came out on Monday, right on time. The guy had a tiny little baby with him & explained apologetically that the sitter had bailed on him. I didn't mind, I was just worried about the baby being out in this heat. I offered to let him lie the baby down in the house, but the tree guy said the baby was more comfortable outside.

So anyway, the tree. He says it's fine. It is leaning, but apparently a tree of that size would show at least some ground heaving if it was starting to fall. Which our tree is not. He walked all around looking & feeling for it -- he said that sometimes you could feel it under your feet before you could see it. Then we walked around to one side and he showed me how it leans, but only about 3/4 of the way up. So it looks like back in the day when our tree was young, there were other trees around it so it had to lean towards the sun. Then when it got tall enough to break through the canopy of other trees, it straightened back out. You have to be looking at it from just the right angle to see it, because of the branches.

I also showed him some holes around the base of the tree, but he said those were from birds and perfectly harmless. I felt a little silly getting so worked up about the tree, but he said it happens a lot. People look at a tree from a new angle and think it's falling over and get all upset. He also said that he wouldn't worry at all about hurricane damage because the tree is so strong. And best of all, he didn't charge me for the consultation! Yay! I will definitely call Bartlett next time I need help with a tree.