Large Old Maple Tree brought down by rain.

Large Old Maple Tree brought down by rain.

Answering the age old question..."if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, does it make any noise?"... I can answer "Yes!".

The large amount of rainfall that we have been having over the last two weeks has made the foliage in the forest quite lush, and the grass on the lawn quite long. But it has also continued natures process of thinning out the forest of sick or dying trees. At the back of the inn's property, near an area landscaped for outside events (think weddings or family reunion cook outs), a grand old maple tree was brought down by the recent rains.

The tree originally stood about 100 feet in the air, with a trunk measuring in excess of 10 feet. Since we have owned the property, the tree has appeared on it's last days, taking on a severe leftward list (this is Vermont after all) with only a few branches with leaves at the very top of the tree. The inside of the tree was hollowed out by woodpeckers, and was home to countless creatures of all shapes and sizes. It it's day, this tree was probably quiet majestic.

But the process of hollowing out the tree to create a woodland animal shelter, was probably also the tree's demise. Debris in the tree had become very water logged with the rain over the last 2 weeks. In it's weakened state, the tree could not support the weight of the debris and came crashing down.

On a side note; for many of you who read the blog in the winter and remember the snow stake. It was used again to provide a scale for the tree. The white strip on a part of the tree is the snow stake. It measures 8 feet, so you can get a sense of how big the old maple tree really was. The good news in all of this is that the tree came down without injuring any one. And it came down in a place on the property where little damage was done requiring immediate clean up. But the old tree will be missed, as it was a majestic backdrop to some of the gardens at the inn.