Moral dilema...

[Javaman]

Today, I have to cut down 3 trees in my back yard. They are 3 hackberries. I have a real issue with cutting down trees. :(

It's like this: My wife and I bought a house recently and we are going to be redoing the back yard completely. Removing the grass, putting in fruit trees, berry bushes, native plants, etc. So I will be replacing the trees I cut down, but morally it doesn't make me feel any better.

I guess this is a confession of sorts, but at the same time, I guess by putting in those other trees, bushes and plants, that's an act of contrition.

I just had to get this off my chest before I go out there and kill a living thing. Yeah, I may sound like I'm over reacting but I have a real issue with ending the life of anything.

Thanks for letting me get this out there into the universe.

[Midlodemocrat]

1. We're in exactly the same situation.

Our back yard appears to be impervious to the ability to grow grass. We even sodded it years ago, but it didn't take. So....we decided to hardscape a great deal of it and plant perimeter trees, flowering shrubs, etc.,

We had to cut down two perfectly good poplars to do this, and I admit it really bothered me. I reacted by putting all kinds of plants in the front of the house.

For us, it's a matter of livability. My kids have already ruined the beautiful, (expensive) rug that I bought for our sunroom because of the mud in the back yard.

Good luck to you. It's a big project.

[LaurenG]

2. don't do it

can you just get imaginitive and plant around them? Also some nurseries will take them and re-sale them.

http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Celtis+occidentalis

[pitohui]

3. hackberries are a superior food source for migratory birds

i am not sure why the hackberries have to be removed, they have a legitimate place in a native planting

[malta blue]

4. Nothing provides shade like a hackberry tree.

In the fron yard of my childhood home, we had the largest hackberry tree in the county. It was protected by the county, although we would have never considered cutting it down. It provided shade for the entire house, which was 4000 sq ft. As a teen, I planted ivy around the base.

If you could reconsider the hackberry and include it in your garden, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Peace...