On Durango’s South Side this January, a juniper tree came crashing down from its great height one morning, splitting into three main sections across the yard. Longtime resident Andrea Dalla awoke to find one section of the tree lying across her yard and blocking her front walkway, one section leaning precariously against the side of her house, and one section lying over her fence and across the sidewalk.

During any other winter in Southwest Colorado, the destruction of the tree during wintertime would have been viewed as an unusual event. This last winter, however, was anything but usual. Unrelenting heavy snowfall had caused trees across La Plata County to snap or become uprooted during the December, January and February months. In fact, the day the juniper tree collapsed, on Jan. 16, Durango had received 2 feet of snow over the course of three days.

“The weight of the snow is what did it,” Dalla said. “It was just too much at once.”

The loss of this particular juniper tree was especially traumatic for Dalla. The juniper had been a part of her family’s property long before her great-grandfather had built the home she now resides in. Dalla estimates the tree is well over 120 years old.

“My grandmother was born in that house,” Dalla said, “and that tree was there long before that.”

The juniper had been standing firm on the property when Dalla’s great-grandfather had acquired the land, and he built the house and front walkway around the longtime wooded resident in 1913. The veteran tree had been a staple of the Dalla family home for 110 years. Now, it had fallen from its mighty height and lay splintered every which way across the property.

Though Dalla mourned its loss, she also had a new problem. The tree was now blocking her way in and out of her yard. Unless she wanted to strap on a pair of snowshoes and track around the tree, she would need help.

“What do people do nowadays?” Dalla asked. “They go online for help.”

In the age of social media, Dalla turned to a Facebook group called Be Kind Durango, which specializes in Durango residents either reaching out for help or volunteering to help others. Dalla explained her plight and asked for help in removing the section of tree blocking her way off the property. Upper Pine River firefighter and EMS instructor Kevin Aguilar volunteered to come out and assist her.

In the bitter cold of a January morning, Aguilar worked hard to clear the section of tree that had fallen across the front path and clear the snow from Dalla’s home to the sidewalk, so she could get in and out. He asked for nothing in return.

“He was wonderful,” she said. “Just a very nice man.”

Aguilar could not be reached for comment.

Though she could now come and go from her home with more ease, Dalla had a bigger problem. Another section of the tree was blocking the sidewalk and stretching out onto the road. Anticipating a call any day from Durango code enforcement, she preemptively reached out to the city and let them know she was doing what she could to get the juniper out of the way.

“I didn’t want to get fined,” she said. “I didn’t want them to think I wasn’t doing anything about it.”

Dalla began calling around for estimates on how much it would cost to clear the tree from the sidewalk. Many local businesses offered to help her for a steep price.

“They were quoting me thousands of dollars to take down my tree,” she said with a sigh.

Dalla then realized she did not want the tree taken down. She wanted to save it.

“I told my neighbor I was going to put the tree back up, and he looked at me like I was nuts!” she said with a laugh.

Once again, Dalla turned to social media and asked for help in saving her tree. Just as before, she received an answer, this time from local arborist and Albrecht Tree business owner Ryan Albrecht, who told her he would do what he could to restore the tree.

“Ryan saw the state of the tree, but he still thought he could save it,” she said.

With a background in horticulture, arboriculture, landscaping, and Japanese garden design, Ryan arrived at Dalla’s home on April 12 with his wife, Christina, to view the damaged juniper.

“They’re a husband-and-wife duo,” Dalla said. “They were great. They didn’t bring that much gear with them. They just got to work.”

Dalla said one of the first things Ryan did was climb the section of the tree that was leaning against the house.

“He didn’t even have any gear or anything. He just went up there, no problem whatsoever,” Dalla said.

Ryan and Christina Albrecht could not be reached for comment.

Dallas said Albrecht used that section of the tree as a base to pull the other two sections from the ground. It is now reconnected and bound together with ratchet straps. Dalla is unsure how long the straps will be needed to hold the tree or what the Albrecht’s next move will be. For now, she is excited there is now hope for saving the juniper tree tied to her family’s legacy.

In a fortunate stroke of serendipity, she finally found one of her favorite yard chairs that had been missing for months, which she discovered had been pounded into the ground when the juniper split and crashed into the yard.

“It’s the darnedest thing,” Dalla laughs. “I guess it was sitting next to the tree, and when the tree came down, it pushed it so far into the ground, it wasn’t visible anymore. When Ryan pulled that part of the tree back up, it was just barely sticking out of the ground! So, now I have my tree back and my chair. I couldn’t be happier.”