LETTER: To tree or not to tree

Two recent articles in the Review-Journal made me chuckle, providing a perfect example of what is wrong with government “planning.” The first article was about excess water-use charges causing some homeowners to remove full-grown, mature trees because it had become too costly to water them. The second article was about local governments handing out free trees for homeowners to plant to counter the “heat-island” effect.

If government planners want more trees, they should subsidize their water use. If government planners want fewer trees using water, they should stop giving them away.