Monday, May 12, 2003
MID MAY :
Spruce Alert.
In a hole in the ground of a yard of about 150 sq. ft. is a well printed handmade sign. The yard is around the corner from my house. My house is in a nearly inner-city ’hood of almost upscale probably over-priced homes. It’s a safe place to live. This is not saying much as almost everywhere in Toronto is a safe place to live. We have many families with gaggles of children playing ball hockey as early in the morning as they can beneath signs reading No Ball Hockey. There‘s a dog park and playgrounds and schools and even some exotic little gardens in the place where I live.
But there is also a strange mysterious criminal element lurking beneath the too shady trees. A bicycle thief perhaps? This is Toronto after all and although I can’t quote statistics it is common knowledge that we have absurdly high rates of bicycle thefts in Hogtown. Safe to say I live in safe neighborhood in a safe city, unless you’re a bicycle.
Or if you happen to be TREE.
There I was walking my trusty *tube of dog* dachshund when we stumbled upon the lonely sign in the hole in the ground of my neighbor’s front yard. This was a delight for the dog. All holes everywhere delight dachshunds. Luckily my dog can’t read for the sign was indeed disturbing.
“MATURE BLUE SPRUCE STOLEN. $100.00 REWARD FOR ITS SAFE RETURN.”
The hole was the crime scene. Measuring about 5’ in diameter and 30” deep I can attest that this would have been a difficult hole to dig. The root ball must be avoided in order not to kill the tree and the prickly Spruce does not like to be handled. The criminal could not have acted without an accomplice. Even small trees are extremely heavy and difficult to handle, and the thief would have needed at least some knowledge of trees. One could further deduct that this likely happened under cover of darkness. Aren’t we all most vulnerable to crime at night? And yet the precision and time required to transplant a tree safely would have required the kind of lighting that would call attention to the crime, if not the criminals themselves.
A well laid plan carried out by at least two knowledgeable, quick and probably burly thieves in broad daylight. Perhaps disguised as Arborists, grunting out pleasantries to unsuspecting neighbors.What kind of person steels a tree? Thugs working for a disreputable nursery? This tree would have needed to be replanted, and quickly. I couldn’t help thinking that this could well be the work of home owner who coveted his neighbor’s tree, who couldn’t wait through twenty years of tending, who wouldn’t shell out the $500.00 to but the thing himself.
I love my trees. They’re living companions to my home. I can nourish them and prune them and protect them form nature’s infestations. But I can’t protect my trees form being stolen. I can’t install state of the art alarm systems. I can’t even chain them to the closest…tree. This is not the first case of arbor-crime I know of. A friend had a Japanese maple yanked from her yard some years back. Now its happening all over again. My neighborhood a is not so safe. There’s a tree burglar in our midst’s.
* Tube of dog* courtesy of a very witty friend.
Spruce Alert.
In a hole in the ground of a yard of about 150 sq. ft. is a well printed handmade sign. The yard is around the corner from my house. My house is in a nearly inner-city ’hood of almost upscale probably over-priced homes. It’s a safe place to live. This is not saying much as almost everywhere in Toronto is a safe place to live. We have many families with gaggles of children playing ball hockey as early in the morning as they can beneath signs reading No Ball Hockey. There‘s a dog park and playgrounds and schools and even some exotic little gardens in the place where I live.
But there is also a strange mysterious criminal element lurking beneath the too shady trees. A bicycle thief perhaps? This is Toronto after all and although I can’t quote statistics it is common knowledge that we have absurdly high rates of bicycle thefts in Hogtown. Safe to say I live in safe neighborhood in a safe city, unless you’re a bicycle.
Or if you happen to be TREE.
There I was walking my trusty *tube of dog* dachshund when we stumbled upon the lonely sign in the hole in the ground of my neighbor’s front yard. This was a delight for the dog. All holes everywhere delight dachshunds. Luckily my dog can’t read for the sign was indeed disturbing.
“MATURE BLUE SPRUCE STOLEN. $100.00 REWARD FOR ITS SAFE RETURN.”
The hole was the crime scene. Measuring about 5’ in diameter and 30” deep I can attest that this would have been a difficult hole to dig. The root ball must be avoided in order not to kill the tree and the prickly Spruce does not like to be handled. The criminal could not have acted without an accomplice. Even small trees are extremely heavy and difficult to handle, and the thief would have needed at least some knowledge of trees. One could further deduct that this likely happened under cover of darkness. Aren’t we all most vulnerable to crime at night? And yet the precision and time required to transplant a tree safely would have required the kind of lighting that would call attention to the crime, if not the criminals themselves.
A well laid plan carried out by at least two knowledgeable, quick and probably burly thieves in broad daylight. Perhaps disguised as Arborists, grunting out pleasantries to unsuspecting neighbors.What kind of person steels a tree? Thugs working for a disreputable nursery? This tree would have needed to be replanted, and quickly. I couldn’t help thinking that this could well be the work of home owner who coveted his neighbor’s tree, who couldn’t wait through twenty years of tending, who wouldn’t shell out the $500.00 to but the thing himself.
I love my trees. They’re living companions to my home. I can nourish them and prune them and protect them form nature’s infestations. But I can’t protect my trees form being stolen. I can’t install state of the art alarm systems. I can’t even chain them to the closest…tree. This is not the first case of arbor-crime I know of. A friend had a Japanese maple yanked from her yard some years back. Now its happening all over again. My neighborhood a is not so safe. There’s a tree burglar in our midst’s.
* Tube of dog* courtesy of a very witty friend.
