So yesterday I completed an online form meant to inform the parks and recreation department of the municipality that there was an issue that needed to be resolved in the ravine. The large, heavy upper portion of an old poplar that had snapped during a fierce windstorm and got hung up from tumbling to the forest floor by its mast falling on supporting branches of another nearby tree, until someone obviously intending to solve the problem of a tree suspended over a portion of the forest trail by cutting a portion of it and freeing the wrong end simply made the wrong cut in an awkward situation, enabling the tree to fall, thudding into the forest floor while still being snagged at the mast end.

The form of notification isn't all that well designed, and it was fairly frustrating to complete it to the satisfaction of the programming to enable it to be sent, but finally it was done, complete with photograph (which I'd had to make 'smaller' because the original wasn't accepted, as being too 'large') as proof. Now all they have to do is contact me back so I can give them the location; as an indication of how inadequate the form was designed, there was no required field to identify where the potential hazard is located.

This isn't the first time I've alerted the municipality to a potential danger to people posed by natural surroundings when an element has gone awry; on the previous occasion it was a very large old pine that had grown too parallel to the ground over the years, no doubt because of prevailing winds, and had then partially snapped in yet another wind storm. It towered over the path as well, snagged and held up by other trees but not as firmly as this one. It took a crew a month to get around to removing it, and because of the size of the tree it was a big job.

There's yet another tree growing at a really steeply horizontal angle in the ravine, but it's off one of the tertiary trails, and sufficiently removed from the trail itself so that when it does crack and fall it won't pose a threat to anyone other than wildlife or companion dogs wandering over to its proximity and that too would be a shame if any came to harm. There's no doubt, given the parallel angle of this tree that it would have fallen long ago had it too not been held up by trees its mast has been held up by.

Many years ago when we moved to this street we live on adjacent to the Bilberry Creek Ravine forest we made the acquaintance of a man living down the street, who prided himself on being a 'friend of the forest' in an official volunteer capacity. He too hiked daily through the ravine and if he noticed anything awry it was his volunteer duty to advise the municipality. He's now in his 90s, still living in the same house, but it's been years since he surrendered his volunteerism and hasn't been in the forest for more than a decade. To our knowledge, no one has since taken his place, and for that matter it's doubtful that the volunteer program is even in operation any longer.