Before I even get started, let me say that I like trees. I've planted trees. Just after I moved into this house (nearly 6 years ago!), I put a nice Green Ash in the front yard. I joined the National Arbor Day Foundation a year or two ago. The trees they sent me didn't work out - I think they were too small. Or perhaps I waited too long to plant them. Just a couple weeks back, I planted a Red Scarlet Maple, a Wisconsin Weeping Willow and a Clump European White Birch in the back yard. I like trees.
I don't get this at all. Who in their right mind could possibly think that a tree is worth $175,000? Now if you're talking a famous tree - for instance the Angel Oak - then maybe. But a white ash tree in the middle of a neighborhood full of such trees? That doesn't make any sense.
Sure, I understand that the tree provided shade. I understand that it was probably a nice addition to the landscape. But I cannot believe that you couldn't spend a couple hundred bucks (if even that much) on a younger version of the same tree and plant it just about where the old one sat. It'll take a few years to get to the right height, of course - but I doubt that's worth anything like $175,000.
Somewhere along the line our priorities just got completely out of whack, and sooner or later we're going to have to do something about it.
