Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Monday, July 28, 2025

The Dying Tree Outside my Cabin Door

Several years ago, I and some competent—albeit beer-drinking—friends felled a tall fir tree that was dying and potentially a threat to my cabin. Now, another tree is in the process of punching out. This one, having been attacked by spruce budworms several years ago, is dying from the top down. The top perished some time ago.

When the top of a spruce or fir dies back after a spruce budworm attack, it most certainly marks the beginning of the end. The larvae feed heavily on the new growth in the upper crown, stripping needles and killing the tender shoots where a tree muscles skyward. With the crown gone, the tree loses its primary photosynthetic engine and its hormonal compass, throwing off the balance guiding healthy growth. Over the next seasons, weakened and depleted, the tree struggles. It may attempt a few desperate measures—sprouting shoots from lower branches or along its trunk—but the damage is often too deep. Roots begin to die from lack of energy, and the entire system slowly shuts down. This slow collapse sees bark sloughing away, limbs breaking, and finally, an unchecked fall.

A logger recently told me some trees with dead tops may fight on for some fifteen years, but the end is stalking them. Unfortunately, this particular tree is likely to topple in the direction of my cabin following its demise. And the cabin is within reach.

It’s time for me to beer up and call in my qualified felling workforce.

The Tall Dying Tree as Seen from the Cabin Door

—Mitchell Hegman

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