Save the trees

Editor,

Let’s not allow our harumphing at the city council’s hamfisted regulations make us forget the real issue: trees in our suburbs are valuable, and we’re losing them.

Despite our irritation at the council’s move, we should want to protect the trees around us. Three reasons why: 1. The ‘‘leafier’’ a suburb, the higher its overall property values, a fact well-proven in real estate research.

2. Urban trees make streets more pleasant to be in, improving community life.

3. Trees draw native birds from bush blocks into our gardens. In some Porirua suburbs, our kids can enjoy native birds at home, but in others you now have to go to a park or wildlife preserve.

And yet, every weekend, we’re out there with the pruning saw and the chainsaw.

The council deserves the pasting it’s getting for its crude approach to halting the loss. But we, the residents, shouldn’t let them blind us to the importance of trees in our suburbs.

So let’s do it ourselves, and do it better.

Let’s come together as residents around something positive to green the places we live. We owe it to ourselves.