The Friday before Labor Day our 80-foot hickory tree blew down in a hard wind. It was fungus-infected, probably weaken when lightning took down the close-by oak.
The week before Thanksgiving, the Village of Lakewood arrived with a twenty-foot replacement.
The Public Works guys were ready to dig the hole for the new tree.
Not a hickory, because their tap roots for a tree that size are too deep to transplant, but an oak.
New grass has been sown where the hickory had been.
A red oak, the crew leader said.
Lakewood is a “Tree City.”
Some municipalities just put up the signs, I imagine.
Transplanting this oak was “walking the walk.”
Three oaks were saved from Commonwealth Edison tree trimming crews on Haligus Road in Lakewood.
It and two others were found under a Commonwealth Edison power line on Haligus Road.
These look like locations where the three oaks were removed.
One was planted at my neighbors before the crew came to our house.
My neighbor's little oak was transplanted first.
The hole was dug. Time to drop the burlap balled and wired roots of the tree into the hole.
After removing one of the lateral hickory roots that was too deep for the stump removing machine, the balled tree roots were ready to drop in the hole.
The next step was straightening the little oak.
The MDC disposal man was almost finished picking up the dozens of leaf bags as the leafless little tree was being planted.
Once the tree trunk was straighted, the hole was filled in and the root ball watered for twenty minutes.
The job was almost finished.
And, next year, there will be more leaves.
I planted a red oak seedling in my parents’ backyard in ther mid-1980s, it’s the best of the many trees on the property.
I thought there was a long list for tree replacement in Lakewood? You only had to wait 2 months? You must know the right people!