During high winds the other night, a dead red oak tree fell over in the back yard.
I heard it crack and crash about 6:15 a.m.
We have lost a lot of trees in the last 18 months. The ash borer took out all of the ash trees and several oaks died. I think the ash borer also hit the oak trees, but maybe it was something else. Maybe they were simply older trees and it was their time.
I tend to think of trees as living forever . . . if we'd only leave them alone. But of course they do not, though they may live for thousands of years. Several trees are known to live over 4,000 years, and a grove of trees in Utah is thought to have been alive for 14,000 years. (This is called a clonal colony and is not an individual tree, but a large living organism.)
The oldest known oak tree in the US is thought to be 850 years old or more.
Mine, I think, succumbed to a disease or bugs.
Losing trees makes me sad.