A couple weeks ago, I dismantled a platform I'd put up between some trees in our backyard. The reason I did was because one of the three supporting trees was looking pretty bad, like it was dying, and I didn't want it to collapse when some kids were up on it. As I removed the last couple cross-beams of the platform, the tree simply fell over, without any help from me. I was astounded as I saw how the base of the tree had completely rotted away, so that it effectively had no root system at all; it had been simply resting on the ground. The core of the tree was also gone - this was a tube of wood, with no life support.