Dead Trees and Other Thoughts

Mortality at every turn

Photo Credit — Remington Write / The doomed 160 year old elm behind the Tavern on the Green last summer

Trigger warning — sensitive readers may want to ditch this piece now because there’s a photo further down that could be upsetting. We are talking about death, remember.

When The West Side Rag clued me in to the impending doom of a one hundred and sixty year-old American elm down next to the Tavern on the Green in Central Park last summer, I made a point of visiting that tree. It seemed important to say goodbye. Its fate was sealed when park workers discovered that it was infected with the dreaded fungus Ophiostoma ulmi which we know as Dutch Elm Disease.

I also made a point of stopping a passing runner to share the news with her. She was surprisingly touched and thanked me for telling her that bit of sad history.

Recently I swung by and here is what I found. This time I again clued some nearby tourists into the facts of that sorry looking stump.

Photo Credit — Remington Write / What’s left of 160 years of growth, shade, and history

It’s what I do. I randomly stop people to share things that I think will interest them. Hey, it has gotten me published in the New York Time’s Metropolitan Diary as well as getting me an array of weird looks and quick moves of evasion.