on the imminent death of a douglas fir

Those who know me will know that I am a tree person. As a matter of fact, my compassion toward most non-human lifeforms is second only to the Buddha's. You will recall the solemn entry I made on the death of a tree I had planted in our front yard in Hyderabad and the subsequent jubilant entry on discovering that the tree hadn't died after all. The present entry is about a tree in our front yard here in Seattle that hasn't died yet but whose fate has already been decided.

I didn't plant this tree. In the unlikely event that it was planted by human hands, that benevolent soul would have been dead nearly two centuries now. The reason why I say the death of this great Douglas fir, well over a hundred feet tall (possibly even a hundred and fifty), is imminent is that it has had the misfortune of growing with a double trunk relatively close to its base, and this has made it inconvenient to humans. A safety concern, even. The next harsh winter storm could cleave the two trunks apart and deliver unimaginable damage to the human property around it. No one wants to deal with that. I understand.

I measured its circumference near the base the other day, much as tree people do, and found that it was 12 feet and 9 inches - or nearly 4 feet in diameter. This gives it an estimated age of nearly 250 years. It hasn't been decided yet when the tree will be put out of our misery and that of our neighbors, but in the meantime I'm trying to grow new trees from its seeds, so that centuries from now, when people admire their great size, as we have admired this tree, I can take credit for that.

Update: Those seeds never germinated, so I was forced to buy saplings on Amazon instead. Even those look moribund.

Update (10/30): An arborist came by to look at the Douglas fir, and he said that cutting it down will not be necessary, at least for now, and recommended using a cable to hold the two trunks together. I suppose this latest development makes this atrabilious entry seem rather silly.

Update (12/21): The guys who tied a cable around the tree came by and did their thing, and it turns out the tree is closer to 200 feet tall.