Grove Remembered

Thank you for your reporting of the unfortunate killing of more than 20 olive trees in the Walnut Grove shopping area in Northridge. I agree with Alex Kavvadias, owner of the Greek Market Restaurant, whom you quoted saying that a tree is a life, the “lungs of the earth,” manufacturing oxygen and providing shade for what is otherwise a barren expanse of concrete and asphalt.

Because of its graceful olive trees, the Walnut Grove was a place apart. I have patronized the shops and restaurants in the Walnut Grove for 18 years. I have always looked for a shady spot under one of the olive trees to park my car, and I have never been inconvenienced in any way by an olive on or around me or my car.

Ignorance is the only possible explanation for the killing of all those beautiful trees. Chlorophyll is the only source of oxygen on our planet, and it occurs only in green leaves and algae. Every time we lose a tree we lose another source of oxygen. But for chlorophyll we would not exist and we cannot persist. Why can’t we all learn this most fundamental fact of life?

CAROL G. KATZ

Chatsworth