What a moment! I can imagine how painful it must be to have to cut down a big beautiful tree... I've seen in myself, at my friends' project on Vancouver Island several of them had to come down to make space for the house, plus the large trunks will serve as the vigas (roof beams). Still, I couldn't help feeling the pain, but also the responsibility (though I won't be living in that house). Being present for such an intensive moment, and feeling the pain and the loss of the tree as well as all the life in and around it, makes one feel like they MUST create something at least as wonderful, where even more life can flourish.
Similarly, my friends in Mazunte who are building the theater have to cut down a huge tree, standing right in the middle of the property where the theater is going to be. However, they have placed the time for felling it at the very end. So while bureaucracy is puttering away slowly, getting all the necessary paperwork ready, the tree has a few more months (years?) to live.