Green growth and destruction

At 3 I stopped in to see the Woods at the SW Chautauqua Gate. A strong 30-40 mph SW storm wind was tossing the tops of the big bur oaks, elms and Celtis sugarberries there. A short 50 feet north on the Main SW trail I stopped, as the trail was flooded into a large swamp extending all the way north to the NW Pond. With Saturday's 1.25 inch rain on top of the previous big rains from last week, the W and SW Woods is under a shallow flood. As I stood there, I heard the crash of a big tree coming down, maybe 200 feet north of me. I could not see it, but it sounded like one of the dead bur oaks falling and crashing on younger small diameter trees.
I drove around to the higher, dry NE Gate and walked in on a 1 mile loop. The ponds (East and West) are brim full and over full. A small heron, with bright orange legs, flew away as I walked toward the NW Pond. Across the middle of the woods I discovered two green tops of big trees blown out by the winds. A large green ash top, loaded with new, fully-flushed green leaves, had snapped out of a tall tree just south of Carpenter's big Cottonwood. West of the northern end of Hackberry Alley a big Celtis sugarberry top was ripped out of the crown and lay with its heavy branch partly stripped, exposing the fresh wet surface of the phloem. The elm of Damocles, with its broken top hanging for years directly over the East West Trail, surprised me. The long-healthy big tree is now fading in what looks like a rapid, massive, elm disease wilt. I expect the entire tree to be dead a year from now.
The Woods trail sides and understory are bursting with fresh new green life. The grove of 4-5 catalpas had scattered sweet white blossoms on the ground all around the trees. The small white flowers of some of the early-blooming privet lay on the ground like small white crosses or stars below the shrubs. I was thinking about the odd poignancy of massive focused destruction at a time of abundant rapid green growth.. when I noticed one more piece of destruction. The old blue trash transfer building is completely gone. Nothing left but the cement pad of the huge old ramshackle building where I had once set my bug lights and captured moths and insects near the Woods.