The Big Tree in the Front Yard

We had one bradford pear tree in the front yard, it grew over 30 feet tall and its branches reached the house. It required thousands of gallon of water a day in summer to sustain its life. Furthermore this tree was said to break easily when it is 15 years and older. Its thirst for water was a cause of concern for the foundation of the house, its proneness to break was danger to pedestrians and the house.

Some neighbours removed this type of trees from their yards, leaving the front yard bare, it also leaves the yard subject to direct summer scorch.  I did not want to remove the big tree and wait for ten years for a "better type of tree" to mature, but I did not want to face the potential hazards the tree brought. What could I do? I thought of thinning the tree and cutting the tree short to minimize both risks. Tree companies provide the thinning service, but few would cut the tree short fearing of killing it.

Five years ago, I finally found a contractor to do both thinning and shortening the tree. The first time I asked to cut the tree to about 20 feet about the height of the roof at garter. The tree survived and thrived. But four years later the tree became too high again, foliage causing clogged garters, and it drew a lot of water in summer. 

Early February we decided to have it shorten to 10-12 feet. The same contractor came and did the job in about 3 hours. The cut was really deep, and a bit late in the season. When other trees were budding in early March, this tree showed no sign of life. Lily was worried. I was not because I knew that it could survive the cut because of what happened from last cut, and assured her that there would be no problem.

She looked at the barren tree daily, and saw no buds, she was worried. I assured her again, and started to take pictures every time we went out of the house. Few budding in the first two weeks! 

But surely and steadily buds started to form, and grow into tiny branches, and more and more buds were forming on all branches, and now the new smaller branches grow so much, we can not see the main branches any more, and have to consider trimming the tree so that the new canopy will have a good shape! Let nature take its time, everything is fine.  By summer we will have a full big tree in the front yard.

What to do with the tree is a kind of risk management. Doing nothing is apparently not a wise approach, removing the tree is too extreme and can induce other problems. Our measure is a good one  - it keeps a big tree in the yard to provide shade in scorching summer, reduces tree's water consumption, minimizes the falling of big tree branches in storms.

Same approach can be taken to control the covid-19: take engineering control - social distancing and wear face masks, no large congregation of people, and lock down epicenters but not Zero risk approach. Zero risk approach, shutting down most places and stopping normal life,  is unnecessary and is inducing other issues.

Life, in general, is very resilient, as this tree demonstrated. All we need to do is to be patient and let nature run its course.