Here's a piece, on today's Opinion page in the LA Times, that I developed from an earlier blog entry on LA's annual tree slaughter. I first wrote about the environmentally destructive practice of topping in the LA Weekly in 2000.
Dear Sara: Bless you for exposing my own personal pet peeve to the LA Times masses. Living in the hills above Glassell Park I see a tree and shrub arborcide each and every Spring. The trees on Verdugo, already one of the ugliest byways in the northeast are made to look like a scene in a bad Tim Burton movie by these butchers. Also, developers have taken this slaughter to another lower level when they hire little southern Mexican guys (grabbed up at Home Despot) to clear hillsides (for development and building of huge boxes no one wants or needs) by tying ropes to the trees and large native shrubs and jumping up and down on the ropes with agonizing screams coming from the trunks. Hmmmffff!
by Cleatscrea (PM , CC ) on Wednesday March 12, 2008 @ 8:06 PM
The story in the LA Times was picked up by the Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/la-oe-catania12mar12,0,2371849.story
FYI no matter how many quarters get fed into the newspaper boxes in Baltimore, I don't get paid any extra for the re-print. And for the original I got $250, which is the LA Times' standard guest op/ed rate and which hasn't budged for at least ten years. In this era, where everyone has an opinion, I guess I should be happy they want to pay me anything to hear me spout off.
I've never blogged before, and I don't even know if I'm doing this right, but I had to respond to an article you wrote in March called "Trees torn limb from limb," which a friend who knows how much I love trees printed out and just gave me today. I hope it's not too late to respond to this. Anyway, I wonder if there's something we can actually do about this? I'm from Chicago, a beautiful city that respects trees and is made more beautiful by keeping its trees, planting more trees, and letting them retain their foliage. And you forgot to mention the fawna that call those trees home. I've actually seen these barbarians hack down the tree-limbs when the birds are nesting in the spring. I'm sure that can't be legal! Anyway, I've made a comprehensive list of the most egregious examples of tree mutilation I've seen, driving around in the city of L.A. -- like amputees, and horrible insults to nature (and God, if you ask me); and I've also made a list of these same species of trees left in their natural state (hard to find, I admit, but there are some that go unscathed). I just wish I was a better photographer, because I had this idea of doing a photo-essay on this subject, complete with botanical facts, tree poems throughout the ages, you-name-it. A kind of scientific, but at the same time emotional, portrayal of the butchery that goes on in this city on a regular basis while its citizens sit by passively and say nothing. There must be something we can do! Please let me know if you know a photographer who would be interested in doing this. I guess I'll sign off now. I'm sorry for rambling, but this is a VERY emotional subject for me. The indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest believe that trees have a spirit. I know that's true. Sometimes I think this city is bereft of a soul.
Thanks for your comments. The best place to start would be with one of the LA's tree advocacy groups such as Northeast Trees or the Hollywood Beutification Team or Tree People. They all have great websites and lots of people who feel exactly the way you do. You could get involved with one of these groups. If you want to focus on stopping bad tree trimming you might want to consider launching a website/blog documenting the most egregious cases. When possible you could photograph the trucks, company logos and equipment of those doing the work, and also note the location. Others could add their images and it might really help effect change. This could be citizen journalism at its best.
We recently lost two thousand trees to a new development, here in Toronto. With an additional 300 now at risk in the same location, I wish you the best in your fight.
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Bless you for exposing my own personal pet peeve to the LA Times masses. Living in the hills above Glassell Park I see a tree and shrub arborcide each and every Spring. The trees on Verdugo, already one of the ugliest byways in the northeast are made to look like a scene in a bad Tim Burton movie by these butchers. Also, developers have taken this slaughter to another lower level when they hire little southern Mexican guys (grabbed up at Home Despot) to clear hillsides (for development and building of huge boxes no one wants or needs) by tying ropes to the trees and large native shrubs and jumping up and down on the ropes with agonizing screams coming from the trunks. Hmmmffff!
FYI no matter how many quarters get fed into the newspaper boxes in Baltimore, I don't get paid any extra for the re-print. And for the original I got $250, which is the LA Times' standard guest op/ed rate and which hasn't budged for at least ten years. In this era, where everyone has an opinion, I guess I should be happy they want to pay me anything to hear me spout off.
Thanks for your comments. The best place to start would be with one of the LA's tree advocacy groups such as Northeast Trees or the Hollywood Beutification Team or Tree People. They all have great websites and lots of people who feel exactly the way you do. You could get involved with one of these groups. If you want to focus on stopping bad tree trimming you might want to consider launching a website/blog documenting the most egregious cases. When possible you could photograph the trucks, company logos and equipment of those doing the work, and also note the location. Others could add their images and it might really help effect change. This could be citizen journalism at its best.