Unnecessary waste

[jdurand]

Our neighbors are building a new house and it will be as close to our fence as legally possible. To do that they need the big redwood tree in our yard removed.

They're paying for removing it, but the tree company is not saving any of the wood. There are logging companies in the area, but they can't be bothered to call one. The tree will be cut into small pieces and run through a chipper (yes, even the trunk).

What a waste of a tall, healthy, fat redwood tree. Wonder what the lumber in that would have been worth?

[Toolmaker51]

I pause on the same question; same [if your's a Coast Redwood Sequoia sempervirens] at rental in Lakewood, CA. I've owned since 1979. Something of a landmark, I was able to direct visitors, being visible above rows of tract houses.
Then GPS came along, but they still remember. Then Google Maps, yes it's visible! In the 80's I triangulated height at 85', suspect though, because no where could I shoot a clear view of the root plane and top simultaneously. Darn poor x-ray vision.

[jdurand]

Except for a 3 foot high, 4 foot diameter stump and a piece we saved, the tree is now entirely sawdust in the dump.

[Toolmaker51]

Things like this convince me foisting of ecology, re-use, and planet friendly emotions are more hype than help. If a tree service isn't connected what's the point?

[Frank S]

One of the few times we lived in an urban housing development our property had an old black walnut tree real close to the property line. Judging from its size it had been there many, many years before the housing development our house was 20 years old when we bought it. They can be a bit messy in the spring and late fat but what did I care it was on the back of the property and didn't bother me. The house behind us sold to some city folk who had previously been apartment dwellers who had never had to deal with things that grow. They decided what they needed was a pool in their back yard so after it was put in things were fine the first summer until the leaves and nuts fell. They called a tree service to trim back the limbs on their side of the property. Which ultimately killed the tree probably due to having half its limbs removed. So now instead of being mad at me for having a tree on my property that had limbs extending 20 feet onto their side giving them a nice shady area they are mad because I have a dead tree not providing any shade and becoming an eye sore It was no sweat off my brow the tree didn't provide me with any useful shade it had just been a nice large tree in my back yard.
Backing up a bit when they had first complained about the tree messing up their pool water I told them well you can always move the stupid pool to another part of your yard . How can you move an in the ground pool they asked. Easy it is a fiberglass bowl just dig a new hole then dig up the bowl and move it you should have given better thought to its placement in the first place. Anyway the tree died from over pruning now I have to deal with it so I rent a chain saw and proceed to cut it down limbs as much as 3 to 6" in diameter were cut into 6 to 8 ft lengths the trunk was also cut into lengths then I rented a chipper to grind up the smaller branches into a walnut mulch Not the best mulch in the world but the larger chucks were bagged for sale to a BBQ place the smaller chunks and sawdust was spread around the property. the logs were stacked and tarped over to dry then I sold them to a company that resold and or processed them into what ever. the only part of that majestic old tree that went to the dump was the limbs the ignorant neighbor had disposed of. the next year he complained about not having any shade some people.

[jdurand]

Here's the last bit of tree before being chipped. The part of the trunk facing us measures right at 48 inches. You can see the bits they cut it into, those got tossed into the chipper.