Woodman, Spare That Tree!

[PeaceBlondie]

We chose this suburban retreat home to rent, because it was so thoroughly shaded. The neighbors on each side have given their landscapes a Yul Brynner-Tely Sevalos haircut, and now the huge tree that shades 70% of our property is being butchered. Some trimming was needed to avoid the roofs being ruined during a storm, but I think the big tree has lost half its limbs today.

Is this normal in the Chiang Mai area, to denude the forest about once every 5 to 10 years, and wait until it gets overgrown again? The rest of the neighborhood has lost almost half its green cover this past year.

[realthaideal]

"Is this normal in the Chiang Mai area, to denude the forest about once every 5 to 10 years, and wait until it gets overgrown again? The rest of the neighborhood has lost almost half its green cover this past year."

Better topic title: Man Beats up a Tree - What should you do?

PB I thought you were an old hand at all things Thai and CM ? It ell you these two observations though it won't help you much while your house experiences renewed sun exposure.

1. My old neighbor Pi Nim had this old tree planted about the time of the trees on the CM Lamphun road. Neighbors come by to pray to the spirits there at holiday times. It also had some kind of big white flowers they can (but rarely do) put in gaengs. As Thais don't usually trim trees - say annually - she let it get pretty darn big to where one bent branch was threatening her separate kitchen house. So in came the team and the truck and the hatchets and the ropes. Never seen any operation like this b4. They hacked away much of the tree, then in an only-Thais-would-do-it-like-that fashion strung up the big threatening branch n removed it so that they could swing it out past the house and then lower it. Very sticky situation. Every neighbor -me too- came out to heave-ho this big branch away from the house. It worked. And in the end the tree was left severely shorn like Einstein with a buzzcut. She has reassured me that it will regrow in a couple years, and that big maintenance like this only need be done every 5-10 yrs. She seemed very assured as if this is normal Thai strategy.

2 Out by the old house in Mae Hye where Land n Houses has taken over and replaced all the lovely rice fields n buffalo pastures with their 'dream' homes, they have also amassed a huge collection of giant trees to be used for their developments. They arrive witht he roots trimmed to a ball and either in burlap or crated up, and easily 90% of the branches removed. But we're talking giant trees easily close to 100 yrs old: huge trunks, stumps of old branches, multiple trunks as you see with some ficus types. I have seen in the past few yrs that these regrow quite readily in the housing projects once given a place to do so. Starts in earnest every rainy season.

So... you should be fine. I just chalk it up to them finally getting around to some landscaping, and then only wanting to put out a) effort and money, only as rarely as possible with respect to the tree, so they really did it up.

[PeaceBlondie]

Thanks for the info. Yesterday my (extremely stingy) landlady was negotiating the price, complaining that she used to get it done for about 600 baht, and now they were asking 2,500! That tells me it's been many years since she last had it done.

Yes, I can see those trimmed lots starting to creep back up over the curb, and shoot vertically. We are in the tropics, after all, in the rainy season.

[Crow Boy]

Is this normal in the Chiang Mai area, to denude the forest about once every 5 to 10 years, and wait until it gets overgrown again? The rest of the neighborhood has lost almost half its green cover this past year.

Hi PB - good to see you back on board after your northern sojourne

sorry to hear about the tree and the thing is that when it comes to summer season everyone will complain about heat etc.

My old place out at Doi Saket was the same and I think it is a part of Thai mentality. We had a huge mango tree in the front, a couple of jackfruit along the side and a massive tamarind three. They rarely got touched except when the jackfruit started to land on the roof which punched out a couple of tiles. No big problem and the tree was judiciously trimmed accordingly.

We also had a big tree that kept the back of the house shaded in the afternoon sun and it became my preferred spot for my hammock. I had a nice little afternoon settup with a table, my double width, extra long (2.5m) hand woven hammock. The tree had two perfectly aligned branches for me to sling the hammock and many a hot afternoon was spent there. I went back to Australia and three months returned to find a stump and my hammock neatly folded up on the verandah. "why did you cut down the tree?" I asked. I was told that "the tree was useless and dropped leaves all over the back yard". "But the other trees drop leaves too" I said and she looked at me like I was just another stupid farung - "but those ones give fruit and that one only gives shade". Better to cut it down and plant another mango (like we needed another mango tree?) and then wait about 20 years for it to provide the same shade as the tree cut down.

CB

[qualtrough]

In a sense you should be thankful that they didn't just remove the trees. For some Thais that is an ideal situation. I recall seeing one house on a nice green hillside near Surat Thani where the owner had removed all trace of vegetation from the property and replaced it with concrete. A large, concrete yard. My wife, God bless her, would prefer the concrete option over our wonderfully green and shaded yard because she is afraid of snakes and because she thinks the neighbors think it looks messy. Never mind that it looks so nice and keeps the house cooler as it is shaded on all sides and the walls get no direct sunlight...

[silverhawk_usa]

I don't know much about trees. But my two neighbors have large trees that they cut back and I was shocked that they could do that to such beautiful trees! Then, I sat in amazement at how fast they grew back better than ever.

They seem to do this on a yearly basis. Now I have been taking photos of the amazing come back, something like a "timelapse photo". Don't know if their the same type as your's, but it sounds like the same theory. I would say your neighbors trees are not gone, but probably getting healthier.

[treeman]

I have a degree in Arborculture, and I do tree work for a living (hence my screenname). When I am in Thailand I have to turn my head and bite my tounge when I see what they do to the trees. Most of the trees are improperly pruned which leads to decay in the tree, which weakens the strength and health of the tree. Then the tree will eventually either fail and fall over or die.

Last time I was in Thailand I was staying with friends. I woke up one morning to the neighbors working on cutting down their coconut palm tree. It was a perfectly healthy tree in their backyard, not near any buildings. I couldnt figure out why they were cutting it down. I found out they wanted to eat the "meat" of the tree, or the heart of the palm. My friends got a chunk of the tree and cooked it up for me. I never new a palm tree tasted so good.

On the other hand I have seen some big dead trees still standing that should be cut down. I remember a huge dead tree in Chiang Rai that was in the median of a major highway. I could just imagine what would happen if the tree fell across the highway. I remeber there were monks robes wraped around the base of the tree, and I think that is why the tree has not been cut down.

[sceadugenga]

I have a degree in Arborculture, and I do tree work for a living (hence my screenname). When I am in Thailand I have to turn my head and bite my tounge when I see what they do to the trees. Most of the trees are improperly pruned which leads to decay in the tree, which weakens the strength and health of the tree. Then the tree will eventually either fail and fall over or die.

Last time I was in Thailand I was staying with friends. I woke up one morning to the neighbors working on cutting down their coconut palm tree. It was a perfectly healthy tree in their backyard, not near any buildings. I couldnt figure out why they were cutting it down. I found out they wanted to eat the "meat" of the tree, or the heart of the palm. My friends got a chunk of the tree and cooked it up for me. I never new a palm tree tasted so good.

On the other hand I have seen some big dead trees still standing that should be cut down. I remember a huge dead tree in Chiang Rai that was in the median of a major highway. I could just imagine what would happen if the tree fell across the highway. I remeber there were monks robes wraped around the base of the tree, and I think that is why the tree has not been cut down.

I know the one you mean, it's on the Super Highway just before Big C. I think it's what they call a spirit tree, I'm not sure of the significance that term.... Joel Barlow just came on line, I'll ask him, he's a local historian here.

[sceadugenga]

And Joel Barlow's reply...

"you mean at the south end of our town? there's a big

tree where they discard old spirit houses and spirit

paraphernalia.

some trees are haunted, possessed or homes to powerful

spirits. These get robes more than others, which may

simply be 'consecrated' to keep them alive - prevents

cutting as they've been made holy...

people honk when going by to ward off bad spirits..."

[soap]

[i know the one you mean, it's on the Super Highway just before Big C. I think it's what they call a spirit tree, I'm not sure of the significance that term.... Joel Barlow just came on line, I'll ask him, he's a local historian here.

there were two trees on the super highway,but the one on the central reservasion

died last year so they have trimmed it down so it does not cause any damage, the one next

to the dead one (on the left heading north)is alive and kicking,

if you beep your horn when you go past them its supposed to give you good luck i believe.

i am quite often in the estate close to the trees and it took me over a year to figure out why everyboby was beeping me when i joined the highway

[sceadugenga]

Well keeping the bad spirits away would have to be good luck.

I thought that big tree was dead when I came here the first time, Cripes, where's the time gone, (hunts for old passport) April 2004.

[soap]

Well keeping the bad spirits away would have to be good luck.

I thought that big tree was dead when I came here the first time, Cripes, where's the time gone, (hunts for old passport) April 2004.

when i said it died last year i meant they cut it down last year,of course it must of been dying for a year or two otherwise they would not of cut it down

[treeman]

I have seen monks robes wrapped around trees in the middle of the forest. I found it interesting how they would choose one tree out of the whole forest.

I also wondered why they would give up their robe in the middle of the forest, and have to walk back with no robe at all!

[KanBoy]

When Thais see monk ropes wrapped around one particular tree, they (we) suddenly have a second thought: "Oh, that tree is like a living monk. Let's spare it. Cut others." You can see this tree saving practice along major roads is most of northern Thailand. I kind of agree with half of the purpose of whoever that did this. If trimming or even cutting means for safety, do it.