With daylight savings fast approaching, let's take a moment to consider something else worth saving: our trees.

Each spring, tree hackers emerge from the woodwork, applying their chain saws to the limbs and branches of L.A.’s urban canopy and leaving us with thousands of hideously maimed trees-turned-coat racks.

The practice, known in urban forestry parlance as “topping,” is not merely unsightly. Perpetrators insist that topping reduces leaf litter and the risk of hazardous limb breakage, and that it clears away pesky branches that obscure billboards, canyon vistas and business signage.

But hacking off the tops of trees only makes things worse. Topped trees frantically sprout thousands of weakly attached limbs that once again block views and are more likely than ever to break and fall. Even worse, topping obliterates a tree’s ability to function normally. Healthy trees create oxygen, provide cooling shade and trap storm water runoff with their roots. In one year, a well-cared-for adult tree can absorb the amount of carbon produced by a car driven 26,000 miles. When the leaves and branches are hacked off, the tree shuts down, focusing all of its efforts on recovery. Topped trees are vulnerable to disease, infestation and early death.

So much for reducing our carbon footprint.

            The city of Los Angeles officially did away with the practice of topping nearly 20 years ago. But beware the man with chainsaw in hand. Recently a tree trimming crew from the Department of Water and Power arrived on my block, revved up and ready to cut back some Indian Laurels that had embraced the power lines a bit too tightly.

            “You’re only going to trim back the branches that are in the way, right?” I asked, in my best concerned citizen voice. The trimmer’s buddy slapped him on the back and laughed. “Well, let’s just say we don’t call him Freddy Krueger for nothin’.” The trimmer smiled and said, with a mixture of sheepishness and pride, “Some of these guys do so little you can’t even tell they’ve been there. I like to be able to see what I’ve done.”

            My pleading seemed to have swayed the team – they left the trees largely intact. Two trees saved, a million-plus to go.

            Last summer Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa launched his Million Trees LA initiative. The idea is to plant a million seedlings in city soil over the course of a decade. On paper the plan looks great. According to the mayor a million trees could eliminate more than 2 million pounds of air pollutants and trap more than 2 billion gallons of storm water, saving the city $10 million in energy costs and $23 million in air pollution cleanup. But what chance do these tender saplings have of survival in a town that is clueless about caring for the trees it already has?

              Before you instruct your mow-and-blow gardener to give your Sweetgum its annual flat-top, educate yourself about proper tree pruning. Better yet, hire a certified arborist who agrees to be as non-invasive as possible to do the job. Your trees, and your city, will thank you.

            When I sat down to write this piece I looked up an article I wrote for the LA Weekly eight years ago, thinking that there would be much to update. The sad truth is that the article is as timely as ever.

            Are you a tree hacker? Read the article and heal thyself.