By Staff
Atmore needs ordinance to protect community's trees
I would have thought after Ivan, there would have been more appreciation of nature and its ineffable beauty. The desolation, after trees were uprooted and destroyed, would seem to have stimulated a desire to be better stewards of our natural world.
But the panic of many has given motivation for "chain-saw mania", and trees of a hundred years or more have been "taken down." The excuses: "They might fall on my house." "The maintenance is too expensive." "They have bugs and are dying." If this logic were followed we would level all trees and become a desert of asphalt. Everything or everyone is dying; we all could be dangerous (kill or be killed in an automobile, and yes we have "bugs", i.e. "disease"). The odds of getting killed by a tree are probably one in millions; the odds of getting killed or killing in an automobile is probably one in a hundred at best.
The National Arbor Day Foundation says: "Trees around your home can increase its value as much as 15 percent. At the same time, they provide shade, produce oxygen, remove C02 from the air, and give songbirds a home."
Some type of authentic working tree ordinance would be a good way for our city fathers to start the New Year. After all we are a "tee city" according to The National Arbor Day Foundation. Even though we all have the "freedom to do as we please with our property," a true community is made up of individuals who recognize how we affect each other.
Robert W. Mays
Atmore Alabama