If you’ve followed this blog for any time you may remember that I did a series of seasonal views of a line of windbreak poplar trees along the west side Kitchen Dick Road. There had been a long row of them that ran north to south for easily a full mile, broken in roughly the middle by Old Olympic Highway. As the picture above testifies, for the most part, they are no more.
We discovered them gone on Tuesday afternoon as crews from the Public Utility District wrapped up their work, leaving the trees in a tidy pile where they’d once stood. The trees I photographed still stand, a line of them perhaps 3/4 of a mile long.
Here’s the view looking south. Notice the power lines? Tree meets power line is not a popular pairing and the poplars were apparently close enough to cause concern. They were large and mature. I’m no expert, but they may have been reaching an age where branches get brittle and arborists start to worry. We saw dark heartwood in the stumps of many of the trees and I’m guessing that wasn’t a sign of good health. I hate to see them go but suspect some proactive logging has prevented potentially big headaches for the neighborhood power consumers.
And if you’re giggling at the road name, Kitchen Dick, like many others around here it’s named for two pioneer families who lived along the road. Drive it a couple dozen times and you forget to snicker.
The revenge of nature has to happen sooner or later… Actually it might have already started.
That’s a memorable road name! As soon as you said the power company removed the trees, I suspected the trees may have been in poor health. Around here, the only way a tree is removed is if it’s unhealthy and a potential public safety hazard. And, then, it’s usually replaced. I wonder if the company plans on replanting something indigenous that wouldn’t interfere with the power lines.
The trees mostly bordered a Weyerhauser plantation (where I think trees are planted for seed production). There are evergreens in much of the area so it’s not barren without the poplars.
Although it was necessary, still sorry to see the trees go. Road names like that give areas character and tell of history. Love to see all the unusual names so unique in our country!
I’m sorry to see them go. Greatly influenced by this site, my family and I had a great vacation in Sequim this summer. Those trees, and of course the road name, were instantly recognizable to me when I was there. I was all excited – I mean they are famous to me 🙂 My family thought I was a little nuts – not about the vacation (that was great!) but about my reaction to the trees 🙂 Anyway, sad to see them on the ground like that, but it’s nice to know that they weren’t cut without reason. They butcher our trees around here if they’re in the way of power lines.
You’re right, Kay, I confess that I did snicker! Weyerhauser is a common name in St. Paul, and one of the families had several generations who attended the school where I used to teach. I prefer looking at the healthy strong trees rather than those that needed to be pruned or felled.
When I saw that article on the PDN site, I thought of your photos and wondered if you’d have a post about it and you do. I’ll have to drive by there and see what it looks like now.
Few things gets visitors snickering like driving by the intersection of Kitchen Dick and Woodcock roads. Don’t care how old they are, it always gets a snicker and comment.