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Stories & Stuff
 Two
things that really bug me
Calling a Yellow Jacket a "bee"
Yellow Jackets are hornets. They are yellow and
black. They can sting repeatedly. They do not make honey. In fact they gather
insects for their young, which can be beneficial. They can also gather at your
picnic, which might be harmful, especially if one is inside your pop or beer can
when you take a swig. They harvest flies, which is good, but also land on dog poop and dead things.
This is a true bee.
Honeybees only gather nectar. They could care
less about your picnic. They are brown, never yellow and black. They can only
sting once, then they die. Honeybees are not normally aggressive, and of course,
give us honey.
My other beef---amputated trees. Ugly stumps
abound. The scars remain, until the tree's death brings removal.
Why is it so hard to just cut them here?
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Sound Off
Two things that bug me are calling a Yellow Jacket a "bee"
and butchered trees. And I am guilty of the first because when I was grade
school age I dressed up as a "bee" for something, a play or Halloween, don't
remember which. My mom and I made the costume. I do remember it was yellow and black.
I don't know why that bugs me so much, calling yellow
jackets "bees". I guess it might be a logical reaction, when buzzed by one
of those mean suckers, to shriek, "Eeek, a bee!" Certainly shorter and
easier to say then, "Eeek, a yellow jacket, hornet or whatever!" Ok,
in that respect you're forgiven. But TV ads, costumes, magazine ads, you
name it, always seem to give the honorary title of "Bee" to that mean bully
Yellow Jacket.
AND---what about that allergy nasal spray ad?
Yup, he's a "changed" bee alright! He's a Yellow Jacket!
The next thing I want to talk about is
tree butchery. There seems to be a lot of it going on around here. Trees
are not "pruned" in our neighborhoods, they are "topped"
and "amputated". The result its the same, ugly, dying trees.
One of the biggest problems is lack of
planning. I just can't understand why someone would plant a tree and not
look up first. Read my lips...ARE THERE WIRES UP THERE??? Now it's
understandable that the wires could have been added AFTER the tree was
planted, but I doubt that was the reason everywhere.
The result are trees with any number of
"punk haircuts". "V" shape and "L" shape seem to be the most common. The
newest one I've seen is a whole row of trees along a street with the
entire tree removed on the street side.
And those amputated stumps. You don't
have to be a tree surgeon or arborist to just cut the darn thing off at
the crotch of the branch. Why leave an amputated stump to rot and die? I
can't believe my community was voted "City of Trees" one year. This was
supposed to be because there are so many trees here. I can bet they
didn't LOOK at the trees.
Thankfully many beautiful trees remain
here. But increasingly, tree butchery abounds, and is spreading by the
chainsaws of the power company and professional tree cutting businesses.
Part of the problem may stem from a means
of tree management used in England called "pollarding". There is a
history connected with this technique. A young tree was allowed to grow
to a height where it's branches were out of reach of deer. The tree
would be pollarded, or topped, and dozens of thin new branches would
grow in profusion. The thin branches, safe from the reach of hungry
deer, would be harvested for various needs. The pollard would need to be
maintained, and as a result, trees of certain types maintained in this
way would grow to a great age.
Click
here for information on pollarding.
I know that beauty is in the eye of
beholder, but to me a pollarded tree is not beautiful. And here they are
not carefully and meticulously maintained at great cost. Here they are
whacked and forgotten.
Links for more info:
Topping Trees is not an Acceptable...
Don't Top Your Tree
Put Down Those Loppers must see pictures
Plant Amnesty she's really into it!
How to Prune
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