Protect trees

Re “The moment to act on climate” (Our Views, June 29): Where to start? How about with simple steps that are doable, have immediate impact, and prevent us from digging ourselves into a deeper hole. A step like tree preservation. Mature trees are important storage systems for carbon, which will remain sequestered for as long as they live. We should have limits on cutting them.

State and local codes already contain provisions for replacing trees. However, there continues to be widespread clear-cutting in many localities, and new plantings cannot sequester enough carbon in the necessary timeframes.

Newport News Waterworks recently completed several large clear-cuts of mature trees, and there is potential for residential development in the same area along Baptist Run as well as the proposed Endview development. Williamsburg faces the same issues with the proposed development of the excess Eastern State property. Under current codes as well as apparent practices, it seems developers would be allowed to clear-cut all lots on these properties.

Local and state legislators must develop new codes with incentives for developers, as well as property and timberland owners to preserve trees, recognizing that under present circumstances, they are more valuable in the ground.

These things are not hard to do if we recognize the urgency of the necessity to do them. For most of my life developers built homes while sparing trees and watershed property was primarily to protect the reservoirs. As the editorial states, “Lawmakers must take action now.”

Ed Elmore, Williamsburg