Demise of the Maple Tree

This morning as I went to feed the cats, something seemed to be missing. Being the observant person I am I noticed these lying across the gardenia bushes. I don’t know why the limbs broke last night. There was no wind. Mr. Fixit wondered if God was a little upset because he didn’t go to church this morning.




This maple shaded the deck and our back door for the last 25 years. Well, not exactly 25 years. When we first moved here I could stand on the deck and look over the top of the tree. Last year the late winter ice storm took some of the leaves, and it began to leaf during a very warm few days in January this year. Then there was another hard freeze that took the most of the buds. There are very few leaves on it now.


I think that this is the real culprit—a yellow-bellied sapsucker (a small woodpecker).
Every spring he shows up and uses the maple as his main food source. Sapsuckers drill holes in nearly straight lines around the trunk and limbs of the tree. There were thousands of holes that allowed disease to take over.

Now we must have the whole tree taken down because it is overhanging the roof. I love that tree. It provided shade and a place for the kids’ rope swing.

(I wish I could learn to put pictures and text where I want them. Blogger seems to have a mind of its own.)