When we think of the versatility of wood, “preventive maintenance” isn’t at the top of the list.
However, in native habitat trees keep landslides in check. We learned this when our condominium association was confronted with the perils of erosion.
Our condo sits on a hillside overlooking a bayou populated by tall pines and lush green flora. Thick vines snaking through the trees create a web for a canopy of dense overgrowth. The bayou’s feral, unkempt nature enraptured residents who lived under the illusion they were living in a magical urban rain forest.
And for awhile they were, until residents noticed shifts in floor levels, night-time creaking, and collapsing retaining walls at the bottom of the bayou slope.
A soil engineer isolated the problem. The thick canopy of leafy vines were strangling the trees and blocking the sunlight, an integral element for a healthy, stable bayou floor. He recommended a maintenance program that included thinning the canopy.
The blowback was ferocious. “Don’t touch those vines,” roared the vine-lovers, “we love that our bayou is wild and carefree as the wind.”
The engineer shrugged. “Ignore at your own risk,” he said. The association acted on his recommendations, but chose to leave the canopy alone.
For the next 18 years, the unruly tangle advanced through the bayou, strangling tree after tree along the way. Tree root systems are integral to bayou floor stability, and as each tree falls victim to the vines, the floor de-stabilizes incrementally.
We have fewer trees now but we want to keep them. A bayou slope without a strong tree-line or root system has little defense against catastrophes like mudslides, triggered by heavy rains common to the Gulf Coast.
How likely is a landslide? Depends whether our association decides to thin the canopy to preserve the remaining trees, or lets it go until forced to import heavy wooden pilings to fortify the slope after our living rooms have slid into the bayou.
Some say "If it ain't broke don't fix it." Good advice. Why spend now when it's easier to let things slide and pay through the schnozz later?
