abruzzi
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A HUMBLE HOMEOWNER OFFERS THIS TRIBUTE TO "YOUZ GUYZ" FROM TODAY'S PUBLISHER OF "ALL THE PRINT THAT'S FIT TO WHATEVER" PS -- I WANT 10% FROM ALL YOUZ GUYZ SOUTH OF THE MASON DIXON LINE WHO SPRINT TO WESTCHESTER FOR THE EASY PICKINGS:
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NEW YORK TIMES
July 23, 2006
Our Towns
Godzilla’s in Your Attic, but the Tree Guy’s on Your Side
By PETER APPLEBOME
Scarsdale, N.Y.
LISTEN,’’ says Doug Erickson. “We’re not out here picking daisies. We just can’t get to everyone at the same time. We’re triaging. We’re doing the best we can.”
He’s driving his big white SavATree pickup truck and talking in a calm and even voice into his cellphone to the general contractor coordinating the cleanup at a house that had an 80-foot red oak crash through the roof Tuesday night. It’s raining and there’s lightning as they speak on Friday morning. The guy on the other end of the phone does not sound happy.
For every homeowner’s nightmare, there is one guy who instantly becomes the most important man on earth. If it snows enough, it’s the plow guy. If your pipes freeze, it’s the plumber with the warm-air blowers. And in many suburban areas last week, the go-to guys were people like Doug Erickson and his crew of workers with power saws, bucket trucks and wood chippers — the tree guys as suburban saviors.
Thousands of trees were damaged or destroyed last week, but if one was in your attic or blocking your driveway, it was the only one that mattered. So for Mr. Erickson it’s that rare time when a humble arborist becomes the man of the hour — or the many, many hours it will take to get all those trees hauled off roofs, chopped into pieces or dispatched to wood chippers with “Fargo”-esque finality.
Last week’s storms struck with uneven force, but they were particularly fierce in southern Westchester, which was hit with 65- to 75-mile-an-hour winds that knocked out power to about 35,000 utility customers.
So, as local tree disasters go, the past week was about as bad as it gets — ranking, Mr. Erickson said, in the top five storms of the 10 years he’s been working for SavATree, for which he is now the Mamaroneck branch manager. He figures he will get to all of the most serious calls within a day. But with 15 workers for 200 calls, it will be three weeks at the earliest before all the downed limbs are chopped up and carted off.
Stop 1 on Friday was the parking lot of the Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Port Chester, where his crew was almost through with a downed tree blocking part of the parking lot before morning services on Sunday.
Next was the house with the red oak, where he climbed into the attic to see the tree looming like Godzilla over boxes, children’s toys, an old chandelier and the like. As three workers began chopping up the tree, he explained to the homeowner that there were only so many cranes big enough to do the job but not so big that they would wreck his driveway in the process. And unfortunately, they were all in demand from similarly afflicted folks.
From there he rolled through the slightly less green swards of Westchester, past innumerable piles of tree debris to a small house in Mount Vernon where an ash tree had been removed from the roof. After that it was on to a lovely Spanish mission-style house in Scarsdale with two upended pin oaks, the larger toppled from the roots like a heavyweight out cold on his back.
Next was a woman in Scarsdale whose power had gone out. She had lost five trees last winter and now a red maple had lost a huge limb in the front yard. Then it was back to the house with the oak in the attic, where by this time most of Godzilla’s head had been chopped off so the house could be covered with two blue protective 29-foot-by-19-foot tarps, with the promise of the crane by Tuesday.
Later, lightning from Friday’s storm split a tree in Larchmont, and he went out to that job, too.
MR. ERICKSON, 39, is a former professional rugby player with a degree in environmental studies from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry of the State University of New York. During weeks like this, in addition to providing a service, he has to be something of both doctor and priest: diagnosing ills, performing last rites, ministering to parishioners upset about losing favorite trees, and counseling those suddenly panicked about the potential dangers posed by trees at no particular risk.
It’s pretty clear that he identifies more with those who hope to save their trees than those who want them needlessly knocked down, and though he doesn’t seem the sentimental type, it’s sort of nice to see that the tree guy turns out to be someone who really likes trees.
“Many people are passionate about their trees,’’ he said. “They hate to see them get hurt, so to speak. They’re part of the reason they bought the house. They provide shade to the deck, there’s an emotional connection that goes beyond structural damage to a house or a crushed car. People can be very passionate about their trees. We like that.”
E-mail: [email protected]
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NEW YORK TIMES
July 23, 2006
Our Towns
Godzilla’s in Your Attic, but the Tree Guy’s on Your Side
By PETER APPLEBOME
Scarsdale, N.Y.
LISTEN,’’ says Doug Erickson. “We’re not out here picking daisies. We just can’t get to everyone at the same time. We’re triaging. We’re doing the best we can.”
He’s driving his big white SavATree pickup truck and talking in a calm and even voice into his cellphone to the general contractor coordinating the cleanup at a house that had an 80-foot red oak crash through the roof Tuesday night. It’s raining and there’s lightning as they speak on Friday morning. The guy on the other end of the phone does not sound happy.
For every homeowner’s nightmare, there is one guy who instantly becomes the most important man on earth. If it snows enough, it’s the plow guy. If your pipes freeze, it’s the plumber with the warm-air blowers. And in many suburban areas last week, the go-to guys were people like Doug Erickson and his crew of workers with power saws, bucket trucks and wood chippers — the tree guys as suburban saviors.
Thousands of trees were damaged or destroyed last week, but if one was in your attic or blocking your driveway, it was the only one that mattered. So for Mr. Erickson it’s that rare time when a humble arborist becomes the man of the hour — or the many, many hours it will take to get all those trees hauled off roofs, chopped into pieces or dispatched to wood chippers with “Fargo”-esque finality.
Last week’s storms struck with uneven force, but they were particularly fierce in southern Westchester, which was hit with 65- to 75-mile-an-hour winds that knocked out power to about 35,000 utility customers.
So, as local tree disasters go, the past week was about as bad as it gets — ranking, Mr. Erickson said, in the top five storms of the 10 years he’s been working for SavATree, for which he is now the Mamaroneck branch manager. He figures he will get to all of the most serious calls within a day. But with 15 workers for 200 calls, it will be three weeks at the earliest before all the downed limbs are chopped up and carted off.
Stop 1 on Friday was the parking lot of the Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Port Chester, where his crew was almost through with a downed tree blocking part of the parking lot before morning services on Sunday.
Next was the house with the red oak, where he climbed into the attic to see the tree looming like Godzilla over boxes, children’s toys, an old chandelier and the like. As three workers began chopping up the tree, he explained to the homeowner that there were only so many cranes big enough to do the job but not so big that they would wreck his driveway in the process. And unfortunately, they were all in demand from similarly afflicted folks.
From there he rolled through the slightly less green swards of Westchester, past innumerable piles of tree debris to a small house in Mount Vernon where an ash tree had been removed from the roof. After that it was on to a lovely Spanish mission-style house in Scarsdale with two upended pin oaks, the larger toppled from the roots like a heavyweight out cold on his back.
Next was a woman in Scarsdale whose power had gone out. She had lost five trees last winter and now a red maple had lost a huge limb in the front yard. Then it was back to the house with the oak in the attic, where by this time most of Godzilla’s head had been chopped off so the house could be covered with two blue protective 29-foot-by-19-foot tarps, with the promise of the crane by Tuesday.
Later, lightning from Friday’s storm split a tree in Larchmont, and he went out to that job, too.
MR. ERICKSON, 39, is a former professional rugby player with a degree in environmental studies from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry of the State University of New York. During weeks like this, in addition to providing a service, he has to be something of both doctor and priest: diagnosing ills, performing last rites, ministering to parishioners upset about losing favorite trees, and counseling those suddenly panicked about the potential dangers posed by trees at no particular risk.
It’s pretty clear that he identifies more with those who hope to save their trees than those who want them needlessly knocked down, and though he doesn’t seem the sentimental type, it’s sort of nice to see that the tree guy turns out to be someone who really likes trees.
“Many people are passionate about their trees,’’ he said. “They hate to see them get hurt, so to speak. They’re part of the reason they bought the house. They provide shade to the deck, there’s an emotional connection that goes beyond structural damage to a house or a crushed car. People can be very passionate about their trees. We like that.”
E-mail: [email protected]
