The tree menace.

I recently posted a picture of a house that had been bashed by a falling tree, being a little flip about the whole thing. But it can be deadly serious. This dead tree below, which seems to be held up by vines and hope, is poised to go one way or another -- it may smash into a house or fall across the road; the slope of the ground wouldn't seem to leave it much other choice. 

I'm a fan of trees, finding them shady in a good way, and pleasant to be around. But I'm not a dimwit who thinks they should not be tended to, just let them go as nature intends. Bad things happen without good forestry, as we've seen time and again with wildfires that could have been prevented with careful pruning and thinning of brush. Many wildfires are caused by malice or stupidity, but sadly there is no cure for those evils in the human condition. The least we can do is be good caretakers to our woods. 

The worst tree story of the year happened to a family a parish or two over from ours. The dad, Anthony Apostolico, was riding on the picturesque -- and heavily wooded -- Palisades Interstate Parkway, that runs 42 miles up the west side of the mighty Hudson, from the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge to the Bear Mountain Bridge in New York. He had a family-owned Italian deli in Rockland County, and was riding home on Father's Day with two of his children, ages 20 and 17. The weather was windy, according to reports, although I don't recall it being blustery. His son was driving.

A tree fell on the truck.

The father was buried; the children are still recovering at home and expected to do well. How you ever really recover from something like that, though, I wish I knew. 

I imagine the family will have grounds for a huge lawsuit against the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, or whoever is responsible for the tree surgery along the Palisades. I don't take that road often, but I can tell you it's a nightmare at rush hour -- the road itself is often potholed like it had been bombed, people drive it to their jobs in New York City at breakneck speeds, there's not much shoulder, and apparently there's a chance the foliage will come out of the sky on you. If that accident had happened on a weekday morning instead of a Sunday, the death toll could have gone to double digits.

Trees can be dangerous. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says that more than 100 deaths are caused by falling trees and such per year in America, which is way more than the number of deaths due to shark bite worldwide. And that doesn't even include the deaths in the tree-care industry, which is considered very hazardous. In addition to falling off trees or being hit by limbs, workers may be electrocuted, suffocated, or that old favorite, pulled into a wood chipper. 

I guess what I'm saying is -- watch out for the trees. We love them, we need them, but they're just objects and need to be treated with good judgment for safety. If you have one waiting to fall on your house, don't delay -- get a tree surgeon in soon.