The River Birch on the side of our house was taken down today. This is the before picture.
We jokingly call this tree the “squirrel superhighway to the roof” because squirrels have been using the main trunk to climb to the roof. Then, they build nests under the solar panels. Originally, we were going to add Critter Guard to our solar panels, but we decided to reach out to a tree service to see if they had a way to trim the tree to avoid paying the money for the Critter Guard. The recommendation was to remove the tree entirely because it is too close to the house. On one hand, we save $1,400, but, on the other, we have to remove the tree.
The tree service was fast and efficient. We have some new firewood to season and they will remove the stump once the ground dries enough to get the grinder down to the stump.
Goodbye, pretty tree! It is going to take some time to get used to more sun on that side of the house. I did have a little satisfaction when a squirrel was sitting on the neighbor’s fence staring at the spot the tree used to be. At the very least, we no longer have to worry about squirrels chewing through wires on the solar panels!