Sacrificing Pines for More Men in Plaid

Re “Plan to Fell 17,000 Pines Decried,” March 6: Monterey pine forests have been all but eliminated from our coast. These trees are so threatened that they have been listed as Endangered Species Habitat Area to protect them from the kind of plan put forward in Pebble Beach, where developers hope to cut down 17,000 trees to build a golf course.

All you need to do is visit this area once to realize there is no shortage of opportunities to play golf. If the Pebble Beach Co. wants another golf course so badly, there are any number of courses that they could buy and save the trees. The way we are headed, if you want to see what our native coastal forests looked like before we started building golf courses, you’d better look fast.

Owen P. Bailey

Sherman Oaks

I am saddened to hear that the Pebble Beach Co. is pursuing its goal of chopping down threatened Monterey pine trees to build a fifth golf course in the area. This proposal breaks a promise made by the company in the 1980s and dooms the Monterey pine forest. The Monterey pines grow in only about three forests on our coast, and by cutting them to make room for massive development, golf and an equestrian center, you open the remaining trees, true icons of California’s wild coast, to risk from deadly pitch canker disease.

I travel our coast every year, enjoying the few undeveloped pockets we have left. What a shame that future generations will be robbed of this spectacular jewel.

Elizabeth Lambe

Long Beach