Old Man Willow

On Monday we had a storm with gale force winds in Helsinki which were strong enough to knock out power lines, nearly knock HB and I to the ground, and, rather tragically, blow over a several hundred year old willow tree. I loved this tree as I remember the first time I saw it. When I visited Helsinki for the first time with Jarkko, the willow was next to the bus station and where the buses would drop off passengers. The road went around rather than through and over the old tree which I took as a sign of a civilised city that understood that 'progress' should have limits. Clearly, the Finns had read The Lorax or thought of the Ents before killing such an old tree to make way for human hustle and bustle.

The Helsingin Sanomat had an archive photo from sometime in 1908 which shows the tree in its younger days. Even then it was in the center of city life. Helsinki Public Works is asking people to contribute stories they have about the tree which I think is a pretty cool idea. Judging by the number of people swarming around the stump and photographing it they should receive quite a few fond remembrances of this stately old willow tree.

The city is going to leave the stump alone until Spring to give the tree the chance to sprout if it decides to fight for its life. I hope they put a fence around it soon though as people were climbing on it and taking knives to hack off a wooden memento which certainly won't do much for the tree's chances of survival. I suspect that it was partly weakened by all the contruction and blasting for the new bus station just behind it, too. :( Here's hoping that it comes back to life with the warm weather.