Yesterday, I witnessed a killing at Northeast 68th Street and St. Johns Road: Two large, healthy-looking evergreens were bulldozed to make room for development building. They could not run away or defend themselves. It felt violent and hurt my heart. How long had those healthy trees stood there? 50 years? How much carbon have they sequestered for us to improve our global climate situation? How much would they have done in the future? Are there city or county standards for developers to protect large trees that are along the edges on properties like this that could be protected and preserved with a little extra care?
Clearly, I don’t know the whole story. But an awful lot of plant material was taken down for that development. And when trees are taken down that are that size, I think we have to have a very good reason.
