The Story of a Stick

The “day of the take” is the date during a taking of land by the government via eminent domain when the value of the property taken is set. If the day of the take is October 16, then the value paid to the land owner is based on how much that land was worth on October 16. Because eminent domain is so difficult and unpopular (for obvious reasons), often things are forced to happen at the last minute. It is not common for land to be under developed or entirely unkempt on the day of the take. As a result, a lot of weird construction stuff happens. Near my old house, the MBTA seized a bunch of land to build an extension on to the commuter rail. Right around that land was a forest and the forest was very quickly cut down, probably on or just after the day of the take. Because this happened all at once, the growth of the trees around the area was very uniform, resulting in a huge, almost endless stand of same aged maple trees. Unhindered by buildings, power lines, or waterways, these maple…