Stop unnecessary sacrifice of trees

Re: “Residents’ angst about trees’ fate sparks rethink on sewage pipe,” Dec. 7.

The Capital Regional District plans to cut down as many as 50 trees on Grange Road in Saanich, to construct a solids-conveyance line to the Hartland landfill. A neighbourhood group has suggested building it along Marigold Road instead, where no trees would be affected.

The attitude that trees are expendable is becoming archaic, given the imperative concern about global warming, and the climate change we already see locally.

Large urban trees are a costeffective way to buffer climate change. The economic argument for keeping large trees is compelling.

Large, mature trees are exponentially better at sequestering carbon than are young saplings. It can take 200 to 300 or more saplings to equal the same amount of carbon-storing that one large tree can achieve.

The neighbourhood where the CRD plans to remove these trees is a hightraffic area. The neighbourhood needs these trees for sound buffering and to clean pollutants from the air.

Fifty trees mitigate a lot of stormwater. Is it really prudent and economically feasible to remove them, when an alternative exists?

Studies have proven that people living in neighbourhoods with mature trees have improved health and less stress. Why remove that benefit from any neighbourhood?

Our group, Community Trees Matter Network, urges the CRD and all municipalities to stop the unnecessary sacrifice of our hard-working mature trees. These trees are priceless assets, which take many decades to replace. Verna Stone, Lisa Gordon and David Muncaster Community Trees Matter Network