Some cities are seen as little more than asphalt, concrete and buildings. But Chattanooga fortunately has many trees that add eye-catching greenery during this season in particular.
We are reminded of the words of poet Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918), who memorably wrote, “I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree.”
Sadly, we now don’t have quite so many trees as we used to, as a result of the recent storms and high winds.
We love our trees “standing up” – but after the turbulent weather, a large number of trees have been tossed horizontally across roads, or diagonally onto roofs, power lines, etc. It is reported that literally thousands of trees – some small, but many huge and formerly towering – have been broken or uprooted in the city, to say nothing of all those lost in surrounding areas.
Thus we have not only lost some arboreal beauty, but we face the enormous problem of cutting the downed trees into manageable pieces, removing the debris, filling in the resulting holes and otherwise restoring the landscape.