Friday, February 6, 2009

Friday's Rambling






There are tree murderers out there destroying the beauty of trees in our community. Yes, the limb butchers are cutting the tops and sides out of our neighborhood foliage – all under the direction of mighty Consumers Energy. As you drive through Flushing and outside the city, take notice of the familiar blue dots designated for pruning and the dreaded blue “X” for complete removal.

Now, I am not a tree-hugging type of person.  However, the manner in which these subcontracted “pruners” work has no rhyme or reason. They just spend eight hours a day, lopping and chipping our trees.  You are able to drive through areas where there are whole trees resting on the wires overhead, as witnessed in the Genesee County Park on McKinley Road.

Amazingly, we encountered the same company in Asheville, N.C. in October. These workers, along with their eight trucks, were staying at the Best Western seven days a week courtesy of the utility company Progress Energy, which is headquartered in Raleigh. Similar to Michigan, they were performing the same hatchet job on Asheville’s trees.
Read what Consumers' policy states at the following site:

http://www.consumersenergy.com/welcome.htm?/eninfo/index.asp?ssid=114

The other news this week, something which should come as no surprise, is General Motors and Chrysler offering their highest seniority personnel a new round of buyouts. GM has prepared a cash buyout and a $25,000 voucher toward the purchase of a new vehicle.

Of course, this is done so it can fly back and again take advantage of the federal money buffet. In addition, GM is able to hire new employees at half the pay and benefits. This again makes one believe Ford may have made the wise decision in spite of massive fourth quarter losses. At least they are not dancing to the federal piper.

Featured in a blog next week – the General Motors ruins with photos: a true archaeological dig for the future.

3 comments:

Dean Mosey said...

Disgusting Tree Carnage!!! Seymour Rd. looks like some sort of weird, mutant broccoli farm that has had the florets snipped off by Mothra! (P.S. The smart money has it that my wife will most definitely weigh in on this by 6 AM)

Anonymous said...

It's a little disturbing to see all what they have done to some of these trees. Although it's undersood why, but when you report that an actual tree is laying across a Consumer Energy line and has been there for 4 weeks or more, thats what is really upsetting. The reason for this mutalization was to prevent power outages, but when it is reported that a tree is lying across a line and nothing done. Well lets hope that your not living within the vacinity of this possible outage and don't suffer the consequences. If you should like to view the sight yourself and should be on Flushing Rd, just before you reach Elms Rd, on the same side as the Frat house--maybe you too can call Consumers Power and get a better response. Good Luck.

Caron at Michigan Quilts said...

Flushing Park on Mckinley Road needs some serious tree attention. It is my hope and prayer that it doesn't come in the form of these Tree Murderers! I'd love to see a community-wide effort of people pulling together to clean up the fallen trees and brush. However, I don't see that happening due to the liability of citizens armed with chain saws. I think that for every tree Consumers Energy touches with a saw that they should be required to plant another one nearby... and nurture it for a few years to ensure that it grows.