Around noon today, trucks showed up from the same tree removal service that cut down the ash near the street in front of my house last year. This time they were gunning for the ash across the street. It had been spared last year, maybe in hopes that it treatment for the emerald ash borer would work. But as spring progressed, it became clear that the thing was dead.

So another tree in my neighborhood came down.

They were careful not to let it fall into the house across the street. Such an outcome would probably mean no end of paperwork for the crew.

And down it comesIt blocked the street for a few minutes, but the crew cut it up with great speed and removed or shredded the pieces. They even took out the stump this time. (Last year, another crew came by for that.) Within the hour, the only trace of the tree that had been there for decades was a patch of churned up earth.