Gosh, I am always so saddened to see any tree cut down. We toyed with the idea of solar years ago, but were told we'd have to lose some trees. Well, the trees are what's keeping our house cool(er) in summer. We don't have AC, but our trees have always kept our house fairly cool. My neighbor's yard is all sun and you can feel the difference when you walk into his yard.

Between climate change and the unfortunate loss of about 8 trees over the last 30 years (not counting the darn electric company cutting down every tree in town, including a few at the edge of my property, my house and yard are now warmer than they have been. But if we got solar, we'd only be cutting down our lovely old oaks so the solar could pay for the new AC system we would need.

I'd rather have the trees.

Don't get me wrong - I am a HUGE fan of solar power - I think it's crazy that it didn't become the standard power supply decades ago. But I don't think people always stop to think of the value of trees. Maybe your neighbors agonized over this decision...? Either way I'm sorry you are reminded of this every time you go outside.

Dee

Solar power will probably be our future……just seems there should be a better way🙁

Sherry

That is sad. Solar power here is not so wonderful since our power company charges you for the power you make and use instead of theirs. So no real incentive here for solar.

kay

I hate to see that. I am so sorry. I would plant an oak on my property. :-) . In fact when my neighbor moved in, he cut down every tree in his yard including several large old oaks. He likes the "golf course look" he said. Ummm, every course I have ever seen has plenty of trees. Sheesh. I have now added to our tree canopy-my own mini-forest.

If they amenable to it maybe they can create piece of art out of it? Or at least something cute? I too think it is a huge pity when people first plant trees too close to the house and then cut good trees because they miscalculated it's location. As for solar, my BIL has net zero house, full solar is only part of it. Air system is such that it remains perfect air controlled and there is no dust, never mind drafts. It is an art.

Hard to tell from the photo but the tree is at least 30’ from the house.

Sherry

At least finish the job: remove the trunk and grind the stump. Maybe he can plant c20 foot tree- there many lovely small ones.

We have had two companies try to sell us solar. i really wanted it. when we learned we’d have to take down most of the shade trees

On the broiling hot western exposure the choice was clearly No Thanks.

Still they keep calling.

Awwwww… my neighbor across the street did the same. The installers had her remove every tree from her property. :(

That is a shame.

The stump is such a sad reminder of what used to be there.

The house to the left side of my house has switched owners FIVE times since I built my home (the other houses all around me have the same owners - only one home several houses down has switched owners one time). The fourth owners cut down two very nice trees in their backyard + one tree in the front yard (a very pretty Japanese Maple tree).

We are close with the neighbors who initially built the house next door - when I sent photos of the empty backyard + missing Japanese Maple tree, they were very surprised. All three trees were sized appropriately + thoughtfully located within the yards.

It made zero sense - they didn't add solar panels (or add any other feature to the yard) + the back of the house faces west. It is a mystery as to why someone would remove such pretty trees that were also providing nice sun blocking for the back of their home.

Fortunately, my current neighbors planted two large trees (basically in the same location as the former trees) right after they purchased the home three years ago. My trees block most of the view to the yard next door - one of the trees that was removed filled in the one "open" area. One of the new trees has filled the "blank" space nicely.

The neighbors made a decision to renovate the home vs. looking for another home (the first floor had an odd layout). When she had me over to see the finished space, she confirmed that they only did the renovation because they decided to stay in the home for a LONG time. Thank goodness!

Give me trees any day over solar. I've heard of power companies charging you for solar. That is just theft. If anyone wants solar, they need to just do it themselves as this guy shows. He's in a forest with lots of trees around and doesn't pay a cent to the power company. Maybe the cut the trees down thing is a scam. He's reliable--I have watched him a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4s-oE-VQwg

My next door neighbors do not have a single tree in their yard. On our side of the border we have a huge maple and a gigantic elm, which is deteriorating and webhave to get it taken down…for a lot of money. I feel terrible about it.

When I bought my property, it had about 50 large trees on it (almost an acre). My neighbor (the sun-loving one I mentioned above) came over and one of the first things he asked us is, are you going to cut down some trees? We said why? We bought the property because we love the property as well as just the house. I think he was disappointed. I think he figures everyone likes a hot sunny empty yard like he does, but he was mistaken in our case lol.

Over the years I've lost about 8 or so large oaks, as I mentioned above. One of them was a lovely triple-trunk oak. It had to come down because it had a huge split in the base. We tried cabling it but after one of the major hurricanes the cables snapped and it was decided it had to go - if one trunk/tree fell, the whole thing would fall in three different directions. Anyway, I was so totally heartbroken that I asked the arborist to leave the 6-foot tall stump. I had a big garden around this tree, and couldn't bear to lose the stump. I don't think this is what your neighbors are doing - after all there's nothing around this tree - but I do know that by leaving such a large stump it also saved me about a thousand dollars lol. That's not why I did it but it didn't hurt!

It's hard to tell but the stump is about 6 feet tall in these photos from a few years back. It is shrinking as it decays (sniff sniff) but I love it and 8 years later I am still happy I asked them to leave it. It IS a sad reminder, but for me, it's also nice to still have a piece of it in my garden.

:)

Dee

I would leave the stump. Stumps can be environmentally positive as they provide valuable micro-habitats for beneficial insects, birds, and mosses. As they decay, they also return essential nutients to the soil. Tall snags can provide nesting habitats for owls and other cavity-dwelling birds. Birds and insects (also known as bird food) ate disappearing from the planet at alarming rates and they will thank you. Win for mother nature and for humans who will not survive without insects..

We had to take down 2 wild cherry trees that died recently. Large dead branches were falling. I didn't realize how much shad they gave us since they were not very large when compared to the large oaks we have at the back of our yard. Now my backyard which was partially shady has become quite sunny in the afternoon and evening. Not good for all my hostas. When we built our home years ago, the buiilder's people ran into quite a few trees that were near our house. We tried to keep them but they all suffered damange and no amount of care could save them. that being said. I really hate to take down trees since they offer so much shade and cut the winds in the winter. For us, it's the last resort when trees die or are seriously damaged.