Goodbye to the trees

Today is National Tree Planting Day, which will give those participating a warm, fuzzy feeling of helping the environment. This seems to take people's minds off the sad reality that our metropolitan parks are being systematically plundered and stripped of virtual forests of mature trees, including rare English elms now found nowhere else in the world. Take Albert Park. More than 1000 mature trees were chain-sawed for a car race and, recently, 70 more, including precious elms, for the 2006 Games pool. Royal Park has suffered similarly with 550 trees axed for the Games sports stadiums and almost 2000 felled to clear the way for construction of the Games Village. Governor Latrobe, our visionary first governor, laid out our city for the enjoyment and recreation of Melburnians and left a wonderful inheritance of parks with avenues of magnificent trees. What are we handing on to our children? They will have to wait 50 years to see the trees planted today come to full maturity. It seems that Australians still follow the old pioneering bush maxim, "if it moves, shoot it; if it stands still, chop it down". Oh, and by the way, sport rules, OK?

JULIANNE BELL, Hawthorn

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au Letters July 25, 2004