As anyone who lost power this week will attest, ice-covered trees were not a good thing, as many that fell from the added weight knocked down power lines. Plus, many trees and plants may never fully recover from the damage they suffered from this extraordinary weather event.

Here’s Maureen’s first-hand report, including photos:

I am grateful that my roof was not damaged, nor me, my car or any other more permanent property!

“Mature planting” is what the real estate market calls this kind of full, heavily-shrubbed, wooded locale. It also lends itself to greater damage when snow and freezing rain come along.

I had been holed up here at home for 5 days with snow and a sore throat. Yesterday, a friend picked me up on the snowy roads and took me to lunch, then dropped me back off at home. When I trudged up my driveway, I was stunned. That absolutely lovely Stewartia tree that was at the southwest corner of my house had been rotted at the base and its 5 big trunks split and splayed out like an open hand, with one leader landing on my house. It must have fallen slowly. There was no damage to the roof and only the gutter was dented. I contacted an arborist, who then charged an exorbitant “emergency” fee just to get the tree off my roof. I had to remove the tree and he knew it.

I NEVER imagined that tree would come down! But the snow, coupled with freezing rain and 3/8″ of an ice coating on everything was too much.

My first sight of the Stewartia Koreana tree, lying on my roof and filling my parking area next to my house. Click image to see larger version.

No damage to my roof! Just the gutter was dented. Incredible good fortune. The Stewartia had 5 or 6 big trunks and they splayed and fell all over the yard, crushing rhodies and camellias in their paths. Click image to see larger version.

The power had been out all day, and still was by nightfall, so I came in and made a nice fire and sat there until the power came back on late in the evening.

This morning, I looked out the front window toward the 100 foot high cypress that stood at the roadside at the corner of my parking area and half of it was missing! (I had just commented yesterday to several people how nervous I felt about that tree with its heavy lean toward the wires, telephone pole and street.) Apparently, one main trunk had come down sometime in the night/morning and the city crews had cut it up to clear the road.

This cypress has been leaning heavily for years, but even worse with snow and freezing rain. If it came down, it would take out all the wiring for the whole neighborhood. Click image to see larger version.

The other cypress trunk HAD to come down immediately and it made me nervous as every minute passed while it still stood. With the raw gash on its side where the first trunk had pulled away, it weakened the tree all the more.

A Seattle City Light truck was parked down the street. I walked over, talked to a guy who gave me the main dispatch phone number. They said they’d be out in a couple of hours and would cut the tree down at no charge (!!!) because it was a potential danger to all the lines on the street. After paying the high fee yesterday, I was relieved at the free removal today.

Once they came and removed the cypress, I relaxed. Imminent dangers had been handled. Click image to see larger version.Once they came and removed the cypress, I relaxed. Imminent dangers had been handled

At the north side of my house, what had once been a tall column of yew tree, had been transformed into a Dr. Seuss version of a yew:

Unfortunately, yew does not snap back into shape once it’s been deformed by snow and ice. So my big yew will be cut down to about 4 feet and I’ll let it grow as it wishes.

The beautiful, big rhodie at the bottom of my driveway was also dramatically broken, but salvageable.

Maureen also writes a great blog that’s worth a regular read – check it out here.

They’ll also be at the Alki Masonic Hall (4736 40th Ave. SW.) from 10:00 – 2:00.

Here are more details:

• Suggested donation is $5.00.
• No flocked trees please.
• For more information please contact Jan Hunter at 206-849-7906.

Check out the Rainbow Girls by going to www.gorainbow.org.

It’s Christmas tree time and Advertiser Zenith Holland Gardens in Des Moines is the place to find yours.

The trees arrive this Saturday, Nov. 19th. A second fresh cut delivery is set to arrive Dec. 1st.

Real trees have a great natural fragrance, reminds Lyn Robinson of Zenith Holland. Real trees smell like Christmas!

Located just south of downtown Des Moines, Zenith Holland is open seven days a week  (closed Thanksgiving Day, hours below).

They offer a terrific selection: Noble Fir, Grand Fir and Douglas Fir. Trees come in all sizes, from tabletops to twelve feet.

Larger trees can be delivered to local businesses. Call 206-878-7002 for more information.

Many Christmas tree lots accept only cash from their customers. Zenith Holland also takes Visa, Mastercard and personal checks.

And who actually delivers Christmas trees? Lyn points out, “Well, we do!” Delivery fees are waived for tree buyers in the local Des Moines area.

While you’re there, check out the wonderful holiday wreaths, garlands and festive centerpieces Zenith Holland is offering along with paperwhite bulbs and poinsettias.

Friend them on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/ZenithHollandGardens

Zenith Holland is easy to find:

Zenith Holland's Lyn Robinson

• Head south through downtown Des Moines on Marine View Drive.
• You’ll pass the Red Robin restaurant on your right. Stay in the right lane, curving gently up the hill, past the Taco Time on your left.
• About a quarter mile up you’ll see Zenith Holland’s entry point wooden sign on your left.

Zenith Holland Gardens
23260 Marine View Drive South
Des Moines, WA  98198
Phone:  206-878-7002

www.ZenithHolland.com

Hours:

• Open seven days a week
• Friday and Saturday 9am to 9pm
• Sunday through Thursday 10am to 7pm

We’d like to welcome our latest Advertiser, local company Burien Tree Service, accomplished in a wide range of tree-related services as well as a variety of general home services.

Matt McCluskey is the Chief Arborist, and he’s got decades of experience pruning all sizes of trees and using low-impact techniques to safely remove diseased or damaged trees without damaging surrounding property.

Erica Fraser has 25 years of experience in real estate and property management.the scope of her expertise is in renovation, rehabilitation, and curb appeal. She has enjoyed the success of actual sales after exterior home makeovers, and updates have been completed.

Matt McCluskey and Erica Fraser.

Their combined experience compliment each other and enable them to command the exterior home makeover industry.

“One of our greatest joys is to take a property overgrown and taken over by nature and elements and transform it into a renewed property,” said Matt.

Burien Tree Service specializes in large and small tree removals, pruning, cabling, canopy raising, view clearing and enhancement, windsailing, deadwood removal, crane extractions for minimal damage to landscapes, chipping and clean up.

“We would rather save a tree than remove it or practice tree topping,” they say on their website.

And for a limited time, they’re offering an exclusive Coupon on B-Town Blog Readers – just click below and print this out to save 20%!:

Click image to Print this Coupon.

Burien Tree’s services include:

• Expert Pruning
• Low Impact Crane Tree Removal
• Dangerous and Hazardous Tree Removals
• View Enhancements
• Stump Grinding
• Arborist Evaluations and Hazard Tree Reports
• Mycorizae Applications
• Landscaping
• Home Services

Burien Tree primarily services Seattle, West Seattle, Mercer Island, White Center, Burien, Normandy Park, Tukwila, Renton, Des Moines, Kent, Auburn, and Federal Way, but please call them if you are outside of these areas to discuss your tree needs.

Check out their website at www.burientree.com, or call then at 206-533-4256 or email matt@burientree.com.

The City of Burien’s Arbor and Earth Day Celebration will start at 11am on Wednesday, April 13th at the South Shelter in Seahurst Park.

This year marks the 139th anniversary of Arbor Day, and Burien be recognized for its 10th year as a Tree City USA.

The city will be planting a Hemlock tree to honor the memory of Jay Powers, park maintenance worker for the City of Burien contracted through TruGreen Landcare, who passed away in December 2010.

Here are the details:

WHAT: 2011 Arbor Day and Earth Day observation

WHEN: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 11:00 am

WHERE: Seahurst Park, South Shelter.

On November 18, 2010, we – the citizens were told for the first time in a posting on The B-Town Blog (read about it here and here) that 96 significant growth trees would be taken down for the street overlay project on Ambaum. This caught most citizens by surprise because nowhere in the City Council presentations, on the city website or in the city newsletter was the destruction of these trees ever mentioned to citizens.

Once the B-Town Blog exposed what the Xs on the trees meant, it raised citizens’ concern. Citizens were told by the city that the trees had to go in order to lay new sidewalks and to provide safe sidewalks for the disabled. However, new trees would replace the old ones. Citizens were allowed no voice in the choice of trees but were told that proper ones by city standards had been selected for the replanting.

Those old trees were taken down in record time. Burien has never worked so fast to destroy or remedy a situation in the city. Sometimes in Burien, it takes up to one year just to get one piece of graffiti removed but those trees were gone in two weeks-interestingly enough just in time for our rainiest part of the year. This is the time when significant trees are most important to the environment for the amount of water they take up to prevent flooding. One significant tree can take up to 1 million gallons of water in one year-that is a heck of a lot of storm water and surface water runoff.

On December 12-13, 2010, we had record rains and Miller Creek had record flooding. The trees that were removed on Ambaum used to take up and divert some of that runoff from entering the creek. Perhaps part of that record flooding in Miller Creek was intensified by the removal of that many trees along Ambaum.

Now we are approaching spring. The new sidewalks are in along Ambaum and strangely there are no trees where the old ones used to be and there appears to be no planting space for trees. So where are the trees? And where will they be planted?

Around 50 sick-looking trees sit in a storage lot at SW 148th and Ambaum Blvd. SW.

At the corner of SW 148th and Ambaum, there are a stack of trees in what sometimes serves as a Christmas tree lot. It appears that the city or the contractor that the city is using for the street overlay is using this space for staging. A number of trees are wrapped in burlap and exposed to the elements. They have been there for at least a month. They have no dirt mounted around them and in the cold weather we have had probably have a 50-50 chance of surviving when planted because they were not protected correctly. Are these our new trees for Ambaum? The root ball size does not look like it will fit into the small amount of space that is left between the sidewalk and the curbs on Ambaum.

When Eagle Landing Park was put in, hundreds of shrubs and trees were left out on the open ground and never planted. This was an expensive waste of plant materials at tax payer expense. Hopefully, this is not the fate of the Ambaum trees-if in fact there are ever going to be any replacement trees put back in.

- Chestine Edgar

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Have an opinion on something? Please email us a "Letter to the Editor" by clicking here. Be sure to include your real name and a way to contact you, and, pending our review, we'll most likely post it.]

It’s that time of year again, when the holiday trimmings come off, get put into big plastic storage bins in the shed, leaving behind a dilapidated and dried up, dangerously flammable Christmas tree with no place to go.

Here’s your B-Town Blog guide to how to recycle your tree:

BURIEN:

BOY SCOUT TROOP #375 RECYCLING EVENT SATURDAY & SUNDAY, JAN. 8-9:

• We list this first because we like helping good local service organizations – Boy Scout Troop #375 will be recycling trees this Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 8th & 9th) from 9am – 4pm next to BTB Advertiser Herr Backyard Garden Center at the corner of 160th and 1st Ave South.
• $5 donation per tree.
• The trees are de-limbed and chipped, and the trunks are turned into firewood and sold to raise money for the local scouts.
• It’s a quick, easy and painless way to recycle – you can do it without even leaving your car, as several hard-working scouts will be on hand.

CURBSIDE RECYCLING VIA WASTE MANAGEMENT:
Undecorated holiday trees are accepted with regularly scheduled curbside yard collection if they are:

• Free of flocking, tinsel & ornaments
• Cut in pieces less than 4 feet long, and
• Less than 4 inches in diameter at the base
• Multi-family complexes can order a special drop box for recycling holiday greens by calling 1-800-592-9995.

NORMANDY PARK:

CURBSIDE RECYCLING VIA ALLIED WASTE:

• Allied Waste provides curbside collection of Christmas Trees to single-family residential yard debris customers.
• Yard Debris customers can set Christmas trees out on their regularly scheduled collection day.
• Trees must be free of flocking, tinsel, ornaments and metal hangers, cut to 4′ lengths and tied into bundles less than 2′ wide.
• Use biodegradable string or twine – no nylon, plastic or other synthetic materials.
• Flocked trees are not recyclable and will not be accepted – put flocked trees in the garbage.

DES MOINES:

CURBSIDE RECYCLING VIA ALLIED WASTE:

• Allied Waste will be picking up Christmas trees for residential curbside customers on the normal garbage pick-up day next week.
• Place trees curbside, cut into 4′ lengths and tie into bundles no more than 2′ wide.
• Tinsel, garland, and ornament hangers must be removed.
• There will be no charge for this special pick-up.
• Must be a garbage customer to be eligible.
• Trees need to be cut into 4′ lengths and tied into bundles no more than 2′ wide.

DO IT YOURSELF:

• King County has several options for recycling Christmas trees – check out their special website here.
• Pacific Topsoils in Tukwila (6000 S 129th St., 1 mile from Bow Lake station) is accepting trees. Phone: 800-884-7645 or 425-337-2700 Hours: Mon-Fri: 7a.m.-5p.m., Sat: 9a.m.-4p.m. (Fri., Dec 31: closes at 2 p.m., Sat., Jan 1: closed, Cost: $3.00/tree

Need a Christmas tree?

How about a hostess gift or some festive decorations?

Want to help a good cause?

Come out and support Parkside Elementary PTA’s Holiday Evergreen Fundraiser this Saturday Dec. 11th, from 11am – 4pm at the school, located at 2104 South 247th Street in Des Moines.

20% of all proceeds will benefit Parkside Elementary School.

The Christmas trees are in at WLB Advertiser Zenith Holland Gardens in Des Moines.

It’s Christmas tree time and Zenith Holland Gardens in Des Moines is the place to find yours. “Real trees have a great natural fragrance,” reminds Lyn Robinson of Zenith Holland. “Real trees smell like Christmas!”

Located just south of downtown Des Moines, Zenith Holland is open seven days a week.

They offer a terrific selection: Noble Fir, Grand Fir and Douglas Fir. Trees come in all sizes, from tabletops to twelve feet.

In addition to fresh cut trees, Zenith Holland offers wreaths, garlands & much more. Zenith Holland has been in business for 30 years selling trees for 15. Zenith Holland supports local family farms, keeping the farmers and the local farming community sustainable.

Zenith Holland’s Lyn Robinson

Many Christmas tree lots accept only cash from their customers. Zenith Holland also takes Visa, Mastercard and personal checks.

“And who actually delivers Christmas trees?” Lyn points out. “Well, we do!” Delivery fees are waived for tree buyers in the local Des Moines area.

While you’re there, check out the wonderful holiday wreaths, garlands and festive paper whites Zenith Holland is offering.

Zenith Holland is open seven days a week. They open at 9am on Saturdays.

Like a sapling in a forest, Zenith Holland is easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there.

It’s easy to find:

• Head south through downtown Des Moines on Marine View Drive.
• You’ll pass the Red Robin restaurant on your right. Stay in the right lane, curving gently up the hill, past the Taco Time on your left.
• About a quarter mile up you’ll see Zenith Holland’s wooden sign on your left.

Zenith Holland Gardens is located at 23260 Marine View Drive South.

Zenith Holland Gardens
23260 Marine View Drive South
Des Moines, WA 98198

Phone: 206-878-7002

Hours:

• Open seven days a week
• Saturday 9am to 9pm
• Friday 10am to 9pm
• Sunday through Thursday 10am to 7pm

Story & Photos by Scott Schaefer

We first reported on Nov. 18th that, as part of the City of Burien’s 2010/2011 Overlay Asphalt project, 96 trees along Ambaum Blvd. SW were going to be cut down in order to allow for new, ADA-compliant sidewalks to be put in sometime next year.

“These trees (‘London Planes’) were planted 20-30 years ago before much was known about what kind of trees might work well around sidewalks and pavement,” said Jenn Ramirez Robson, city management analyst. “The roots from these trees grow close to the surface and wreak all sorts of havoc. In the case of Ambaum, the roots have not only buckled sidewalks but they have also pushed out curbs and have begun to grow up and out from the street itself.”

Robson adds:

Because the roots are causing damage in so many directions cutting the problem roots would not leave enough stability for the tree. It should also be noted that the trees are too old and established to be transferred to another location. The trees will be removed sometime before the end of the year. They will be replaced with one of the following in the spring:

• Pyrus calleryana ‘Glen’s Form’/ Chanticleer Pear
• Tilia cordata ‘Corzam’/ Corinthian Linden
• Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’/ Pyramidal European Hornbeam

Friday morning (Dec. 3rd), workers could be seen along Ambaum near SW 136th clearing cut trees and branches, with chippers munching away at the remains of these grand old plants:

As of Friday morning, Dec. 3rd, this stretch of Ambaum just south of SW 136th suddenly looked much more exposed.

Workers insert tree limbs and branches into chippers on Ambaum Blvd. SW the morning of Dec. 3rd.

This photo, taken Nov. 18th, shows a line of trees marked "X" – meaning they're all doomed to be cut down.

We here at The B-Town Blog believe that the city should have let its citizens know that these 96 trees were going to be destroyed for this project.

We don’t believe that was the case.

Our unscientific poll from some 155 Readers shows that at least 59% share our sentiment that they’re sad to see these trees cut:

How do you feel about the city removing 96 trees along Ambaum Blvd. SW?

• WTF? DON’T REMOVE these great old trees! I love ‘em! (59%, 91 Votes)
• I AGREE! This street (and sidewalks) needs a major face-lift! (34%, 53 Votes)
• I don’t care about trees or nature or beauty in Burien. (7%, 11 Votes)

For more information about road construction in Burien, or to share your opinion directly with the city, you can call (206) 436-5551.

Also, if you haven’t yet taken our poll, please vote or share your opinion below with a Comment: