When trees are the enemy

Like most of the Pacific Northwest, Bainbridge Island is thick with trees. Big, huge, scary evergreen trees.

What? You're not afraid of trees? Neither was I until I moved here and was educated by my neighbors. Sure -- they look friendly -- like this I guy I photographed in our backyard yesterday. Isn't he adorable? But they're silent killers.

Here's the problem. Bainbridge is a temperate rainforest. That's a nice technical way of saying that the sun don't shine for months at a time -- and in winter and spring, we are subject to some pretty serious rain storms. The rain, it seems, weaken the roots of these gentle giants and makes them subject to taking a tumble. It's all part of the natural life cycle of a forest, of course. Trees don't live forever and this is how some of the oldest eventually meet their end. So it's all fine - unless you (or your critical power lines) are underneath one of them at the time.

Mind you: the power outages are bad enough. We lose power about once a month in the winter due to downed trees -- sometimes it's more like once a week. But we have a generator for longer outages and so it's really no terrible inconvenience. But, apparently, there are a few very unlucky souls each year who get taken out -- squished, technically -- by a Douglas Fir. That would be a rough way to go.

My neighbor grew up here and she is terrified of falling trees. During a stormy day, I see her dashing up and down our dirt lane like a nervous rabbit at top speed, apparently trying to avert disaster. Now, I have never been quite sure what speed has to do with it. Do falling trees find it harder to hit a moving object? That I don't know. I just know that I'll be keeping my eyes on these guys from here forward.