A Different Light on Trees

Please correct the mistaken impression given to your readers by the figure of “17,000 new trees” often quoted by your paper. This is the replacement number to be planted by the landfill company, Browning-Ferris Industries, in its proposed Sunshine Canyon landfill extension area.

However, the environmental impact report gives a different picture. Volume III states that “small planting stock (2-inch-by-2-inch-by-6-inch containers with open bottoms) will be used for most planting. . . . The seedling or seed spot will be planted in the center of the planting bed.”

How’s that sound? You cannot get too much of an “oak tree” in a 2-by-2-by-6 container. As stated in their own report, this is called a seedling, seed spot--or in layman’s terms--acorns.

Now that you know 8,600-plus trees are slated to be destroyed and replaced with 17,000 seedlings or acorns, it puts things in a whole new light, doesn’t it?

DR. JOAN SANDER

Granada Hills