Lament of a ‘tree hugger’

RE “A California Essential” [Sept. 8]: We recently moved to Visalia, Calif., which is a Tree City USA-designated city. A local ordinance prohibits the removal of oaks. Applications for removals are routinely denied. Yet the city allows the pollarding (topping off) of all other trees, which has to be the most gruesome example of tree “trimming” we’ve ever been exposed to.

We have an oak that is roughly 125 feet tall that, yes, hangs over our pool and causes a mess! More important, the oak’s roots are firmly entrenched under the foundation of our Craftsman home, causing it to shift.

Many times, inexplicably, oak limbs have come down, with much economic effect and, potentially, a threat to human life. Our insurance companies penalize us for filing claims.

Having local government dictate what homeowners can and cannot do to their property is unacceptable. We shouldn’t have to get permission from the government to make a decision concerning our own properties.

P.S. My husband is a certified arborist and we are longtime “tree huggers” from the Bay Area.

SANDI LOPEZ

Visalia

*

ENJOYED your oak tree story very much. Our tiny lot (7,000 square feet) is home to seven coast live oaks. The largest one along the property line is probably over 50 years old and is huge. Its adolescent offspring, all placed at random, courtesy of various birds, are about 20 feet high.

Don’t give up on coast live oaks yet. As I write this, a chorus of crickets serenades us, so perhaps there is at least one variety of cricket that feels at home in coast live oaks.

Thanks again for your informative and touching article.

BOB MCDONALD

Old Topanga Canyon

*

YOUR knowledge of Western oaks is superb, but you should know there are no blue jays west of the Rockies. They are all scrub jays, or in the mountains, Steller’s jays.

I like crickets too!

DON BAUMAN

Fullerton