Interesting that Mr. and Mrs. MacGillivray are importing a lecturer from Santa Monica to educate us about urban forests—at least it is at city hall rather than a fancy hotel like Village Laguna has been spending money on. The problem is that we are a magnificent coastal city with views that are unmatched in many areas—Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, and even San Diego. I assume that either the MacGillivrays have an oceanfront home where a view cannot be broached, or they don’t have a view and don’t understand how precious this privilege is to many of us and we want to keep it. I have often said that trees, especially eucalyptus trees, do not frame a view, they are not static and most people do not want to spend the money to keep a tree/trees trimmed to avoid blocking views for their neighbors. Some even use trees for malicious purposes.
Most of us are tree lovers; however, as the climate changes, we may find ourselves limited as to the vegetation that we can support willingly or unwillingly. So many people have converted to low water usage gardens, and if we use water, use it productively to grow fruit trees or vegetables. How arrogant of society to waste water on plants like eucalyptus that drink all the water around them including groundwater, and don’t really give back in the same productive manner as other vegetation that also support cleaning the air and providing food/nesting opportunities for wildlife.
By the way about urban forests—we have Laguna Woods and Lake Forest nearby. They have trees, don’t they? I understand that the Mission Viejo Company is planning to remove many of their eucalyptus trees to mitigate fires and help with water usage.
Ganka Brown, Laguna Beach
