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Tree Killers by Gordon Williamson

August 11, 2008

Tree killers

Why are so many homeowners trying to kill their palm trees by extreme trimming? Why are so many tree-cutters encouraging this practice, which exposes the heart of the tree to weather extremes, serious disease and harmful insects? One conclusion is that many tree-cutters know little about the important service trees provide. Permits to cut and licenses to become a tree-cutter are too easy to obtain. One needs only to ride on Riverside Drive in Holly Hill or on South Beach Street in Ormond Beach to see the ugly results of the practice on cabbage palms.

These trees should never be trimmed to extreme. With help from nature, when the time comes, they will trim themselves. We need to take all kinds of trees more seriously. They manufacture our life-essential oxygen, store away harmful carbon dioxide and affect our weather year-round. Trees are as important to human survival as air and water, and we should strive to have them considered legally to be common property. We need to encourage tree-cutters to become tree-planters. Let's face the fact that your trees are my trees and my trees are your trees.

GORDON WILLIAMSON, Holly Hill

Leters to the Editor, The News-Journal, Daytona Beach, AUG 11, 2008