EDITOR – I refer to your article on trees and chainsaws and completely agree.
We watch loads of trees being felled because they are a security risk or ‘not indigenous’. Hopefully this ‘indigenous’ fashion will change just like the mini-skirt did.
A buyer took out all the trees in the plot below us, most were more than 50 years old, and a beautiful ecosystem came to a tragic end. The birds lost their nesting and safe places. The monkeys used to take a whole day in there eating insects and seeds and not coming to our house because they are hungry. The shelter from the trees has gone and we now get the strong winds. There is nothing to clear the air of the pollutions from the M13. The more trees destroyed the worse for us – we need them for the transpiration, respiration and photosynthesis which leads to rain – that valuable thing that we used to take for granted.
Domestic workers used to be able to walk in the shade on hot afternoons to catch their buses.
Early settlers here in the Hillcrest area planted exotic trees for shade. There were none here prior to 1895 – it was a grassland with the only indigenous trees being in the krantzes. I suggest your readers read Pioneers Progress Early Natal, and, I quote, “Ernst Acutt supervised the planting of trees on the crest of the hill to make the district more attractive and inviting. Others soon began to follow suit.” That is how we got the beautiful area that is ours today.
I will end the quote from US business magnate, Warren Buffett. “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
R Mee
Gillitts
