A Mature Elm With a Big Lean

[MarkGraham]

I contacted the village and the prevailing thought is the tree grew out from under the branches of a large tree in the adjacent yard that is now down. Then it just continued on its way. Now gravity being what it is perhaps there was some shift in the past as well. It has stabilized though, no change in lean over the past five years per the all knowing eye of Google Earth.

[MarkGraham]

On a bike ride past this tree this morning, I felt something was different, and then realized the tree had been removed in the past week.

Here are two photos, one shows the stump (looking south), the other shows the gap where the leaning tree once stood (looking north).

You can see the tremendous buttressing the tree did on the lean (left) side of this stump. It is hard to count rings as there is some kind of paste spread over the stump but it looks to be about 50 years old. It may have been a linden, not an elm. No leaves left to verify.

This is also an illustration of how many tree trunks are circular but are not circles.

[Bart Bouricius]

I was just going to say, no way it will last another 5 years, and looks like a linden. Possibly it fell, and I think the roots were quite stressed with the weight at that extreme angle anyway. Did it look possible that the tree fell and the sod and stump fell back in place when it was cut up? I have seed this happen a lot, and the signs can be virtually invisible unless you are looking for them.

[MarkGraham]

I checked with the village, the tree was clipped by a truck so they decided to cut it down.

[Joe]

I sometimes see trees that seem to be defying the laws of gravity- one of the many neat things about trees.
Joe