Shame, shame on the Lakeport City Council for cutting down the beautiful, mature sycamore trees on Main Street. But don't worry, says the city council, they will be replaced by boxed trees. One hundred year old trees cannot be replaced so easily as that.

Yes, the sidewalks were lifted but they had to be replaced anyway. How about designing the new sidewalks around the trees?

But limbs might drop, they worry. What a canard! By that logic, every large tree in Lakeport needs to be hewn, including those in Library Park.

Sacramento, the “City of Trees,” somehow manages to live under the canopy of their magnificent urban forest as does Chico and countless other cities proud of their trees.

It's a heritage we have lost. It takes a long time to grow trees like those taken from us this month. But it only takes one bad decision and a few days for people anxious to whip out the chainsaws and our trees are gone forever.

Andrew Tritchler is a retired agricultural biologist who lives in Lakeport, California.