A tree that was..

Eight years ago, when we moved to this house, the red leaves on the medium sized Japanese maple tree was part of the allure. It grew around 2-3 feet taller over the years or at least, that is our perception.

Recently though the bark started splitting off and the top branches lost their ability to regenerate leaves come spring. We took pictures of this to a tree expert who said it is because of a beetle that affects the fresh tender shoots at the top of the tree and kills the tree. Apparently lots of trees in Cupertino are impacted by this. If we had sprayed this two years ago with some chemicals to kill the beetles, the tree had a chance. Now its days were numbered.  Took this picture as a farewell of sorts. You can see the top branches with no leaves. Incidentally, those branches are the favorite for all the birds including hummingbirds. Guess they were eating the beetles and we had no clue.

A few hundred dollars and a dump truck visit later, we are left with an open void. What is worse is that the neighbors tree seems to have a big section missing leaves as well. 

We walked though the daughter's school playground. They have huge 30 year old redwood or pine trees. More than half of them are leafless on the top. That is not good. Hope the city does something before they all fall or create a fire hazard in summer. 

There are only 5 trees left of the original 8 in the front yard now! 

It is sad to see a tree that takes decades to grow, get cut down in the span of a few hours. It is also intriguing to see a tiny beetle destroy a mighty tree! 

Hoping that more trees don't get affected.