'KIDS SAD ABOUT PLAN TO CUT TREES.Byline: Jennifer Hamm Staff Writer GLENDALE - Outraged by the city's decision to remove dozens of trees around their school, Jefferson Elementary students hung protest signs Friday. When the pupils found out the 39 carob carob (kăr`əb), leguminous evergreen tree (Ceratonia siliqua) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), native to Mediterranean regions but cultivated in other warm climates, including Florida and California. trees around the campus perimeter would be removed, they decided to let the city know just how they felt. They posted signs that read ``You gave us air,'' and, ``We will miss you trees, bye bye.'' They expect the signs to remain on the trees until they are cut down Monday. ``I'm sad,'' said Vanessa Dorado dorado: see dolphin (fish). , an 8-year-old third-grader. ``I want the shade and they're cool trees.'' The tree removal is part of a 10-year project the city started recently to get rid of all the city's 2,000 carob trees. The trees must come down because they are aging and likely diseased dis·eased adj. 1. Affected with disease. 2. Unsound or disordered. , said John Vos, public works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. maintenance services administrator. If a tree is sick, random limbs or even the whole tree can fall without warning, Vos said. ``It's not a question of should or shouldn't they come out,'' Vos said. ``It's a question (of) which should come out first.'' That's why the city has targeted carob trees around schools first, he said. ``We're just concerned for (the public's) safety and well being,'' Vos said. All of the 25 trees that have been removed since the program began this month have been diseased, he said. The city expects to plant new trees within a few weeks, he said. The city plans to replace the carob trees with four different types of 24-inch box trees. That's not good enough, said Toniann Perry, PTA PTA or parent-teacher association: see parent education. president at Jefferson Elementary. Perry pointed out that it will be years before the new trees will provide the kind of shade the current ones do. She thinks the city should test each tree to find out which are diseased and which aren't, and only then decide which to remove. After all, the school has decided to keep the one carob tree on the campus, she said. ``It's so frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: . This is not just my school. This is my community,'' said Perry, who lives one block from the campus. ``I feel like we're going to look as if an atomic bomb atomic bomb or A-bomb, weapon deriving its explosive force from the release of atomic energy through the fission (splitting) of heavy nuclei (see nuclear energy). The first atomic bomb was produced at the Los Alamos, N.Mex. went off.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- 2) PTA President Toniann Perry posts signs made by children protesting the planned removal of 39 carob trees around Jefferson Elementary School Jefferson Elementary School can refer to the following schools:
John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion