Stop cutting down all the trees!

But the trees are a safety hazard because of the increased traffic! I mean, slamming into a steel reinforced concrete sound barrier is SO much safer!

H. and H., the times, they are a changing. If you want environmental stability, leave the city.

If you two are not members please join the National Arbor Association. Visit their web site at http://www.arborday.org/ Upon joining you get 10 free trees among other good things related to planting trees.

If you are not a member, please join the taxpayers of Augusta/Richmond County. You pay for the privilege of living in a close packed community and all that implies and have no say as to which trees stand and which fall.

for the love of God -- its a tree !!

Building sound barriers and removing tress creates jobs in this failing economy. I say build more of 'em and let the wood chips fall where they may!

I love the sound of chain saws in the morning.

I agree that the cutting down of trees along the interstate does not make much sense to me. It is not the trees fault if some idiot decides to drive in a manner that causes them to run off the road and smack a tree. Start by targeting the aggressive drivers. If the tree is not there they will just hit whatever else is there.

I am very mad, sad and concerned that threre are growing numbers of people with this kind of shallow thinking. Please help us save our electorate. I would like to be able to enjoy living in a great country when I grow older.

Trees are not only the habitat of birds and other animals who are vital to our ecosystem (yes, every animal plays a role--I'd think some of you religious folks would have no trouble agreeing with that!) but they also sequester carbon that is dangerous to our environment and give off oxygen. From a financial perspective, a beautiful, tree-rich environment is more likely to attract people to live here. America is starting to look the same everywhere you go: ugly. One strip mall after another. Look at Columbia County! PT, an idiotic comment, per usual: "If you want environmental stability, leave the city." Better to make the city a healthier place and stop this senseless, unsustainable sprawl.

My sentence was clumsy. I meant that the trees give off oxygen, not the carbon. Better clarify before someone jumps on that.

Hell I am trying to find someone to cut down the 21 pine trees surrounding my house.

A tree cannot be trusted. One snuck up behind me New Year's eve and dented in my trunk lid so bad, we couldn't get it open to take out the auxilliary coolers. I say let's cut them all down, drill baby drill, then pave over the resulting erosion problems with crushed bituminous, a little tritium and a mercury glaze. That ought to make this burg a fit place to live if we can get rid of all the illegal aliens once they're finished and we have no further use for them. God Bless America. Now where is my free flag decal and support our troops sticker?

The trees are a safety hazard on the Interstate. Wildflowers are much prettier. I never heard.......Man loses control of car, crashes into flowers in median and dies. Bamboo captures more carbon than trees and is more than likely a better sound buffer than trees. Most of you don't care about the environment anyway. So why bother to comment. If you cared about the Environment, you'd be demanding Energy Independence for America, no matter what it costs in dollars. When we're energy independent, we wont need foreign oil, and wont find it necessary to fight other peoples wars, just to keep the oil flowing. But most of you seem to have no trouble demanding cheap gas and in the same breath demanding environmental responsibility, as if you knew what either meant, or cost.

BTW, If you'd taken the Hunter's Safety Course, you'd know that 80% of the small game(birds,squirrels,rabbits,foxes, etc.)dies off EVERY YEAR! Just a fact of Nature. So not having a tree here or there wont make much difference to a small animal. The concrete barriers are sound barriers for the housing adjacent to the Interstate. They fulfill an obligation required by Environmental laws concerning noise pollution. They should be backed with a buffer of bamboo to keep the carbon emissions in check.

Educate yourselves on environmental issues and DON'T BECOME A ZOMBIE! Like most of the nuts we have running around hugging trees. There are more trees in The US than there have ever been. Companies don't slash and burn without replanting. And they do it scientifically to promote more trees per acre and better and faster growth. You haven't run out of toilet paper, paper towels or paper for your computer yet(just to name a few) so, chances are, someone is doing something right. You could do your part, but that would require you to care, and you just don't have time for that, with all of that other more important stuff you have to do. I find it amazing that some people will throw trash out of their car windows and then write letters to the paper about someones dog pooping in their yard. Just a thought, how about trying to recycle a bit, and maybe, just maybe, the planet will allow us to stay here. You don't have to FREAK OUT about it, just do your part.

Tujeez, so "not having a tree here or there won't make much difference"?? And most animals die off each year anyway??? We're talking about in the aggregate. A tree here or there multiplied by all the acres in this country (and the world, for that matter) and you've got a sizeable problem. Song birds are dying off, the bees are dying off...and that affects us all, even if you can't see that. By the way, I thought you were a Repub, or at least an independent who dislikes Dems...you weren't gonna have "energy independence" with a Republican president. Look at the one who's limping out of office now.

Owwwww tujeez..you make me sad...please save our trees they represent so much more than just beauty and shade...much as I hate to say it ...midwest got it right here.

Great message, H. Langley and H. Frierson.

I'm not going to go into the vitality and neccesity of trees for those who think "it's just a tree" and "If you want environmental stability, leave the city" .

I realize that you can't teach a pig to sing. It can't be done, and it annoys the pig. But as a lifelong southerner, I will say I am ashamed that my hometown has produced some of the most ignorant and backwards folks I have ever met. A city does not need to be devoid of trees to be called a city. And to slam someone who enjoys the shade, oxygen and beauty a tree provides is sheer rudeness and stupidity.

Can we perhaps build more trees? They sure are easier to look at than a concrete wall.

the majority of oxygen is produced from algae. We need trees to maintain soil erosion.

MWT, I always like how you come on with some fairly limp remarks about the subject at hand and work your way around to bash Bush on your way out. Nice touch. BTW, if you gave a spit about anything other than bashing Bush, some on here might just try and have a reasonable dialogue with you. But we both know that it wouldn't work, as you are a Ravenous Bush Hater, disguised as whatever works to get your bashing in.

Karmakills123, The article is about cutting trees on the Interstate. Not about trees in general. Trees along the interstate are a safety hazard. Not all drivers are careless. Look at Michael Frank, of the Aiken SD. He died as a result of a crash. Had there been a bamboo thicket there, he'd probably still be alive. I was arguing the trees on the Interstate. Not trees in general, and flowers are safer and more appealing ON THE INTERSTATE. And bamboo is an excellent sound buffer as well as a carbon filter for the atmosphere.

BTW MWT, if you cared about bi-partisanship(which you obviously don't) you would seek to point out common interests between the parties constituents and not remind them of why you don't like their party. In the end, party is irrelevant, Energy Independence will remove so many points of friction between so many people that we might just all be able to get along. But that's not sweet enough to tame your bitter tongue, so bashing you will go. Also, I don't think birds and bees survive very well flying around in 55-80 mph traffic on the Interstate, aggregate or not.

You're right, Tujeez. I am a ravenous Bush hater. That doesn't mean I don't believe in bi-partisanship, it means I have a brain and that I think he trashed the very notion of good governance, human rights, and scientific inquiry during his tenure in office. I hate him. Yep. Yep, I do.

So your hatred of Bush is more important than anything else. The birds, the bees, the flowers, the trees, the Environment and all it encompasses in general. There are probably many, many more things that aren't as important to you as your bashing of Bush. Your hatred has consumed you, so i'll leave you to it. Just find it in your psyche somewhere to keep your mouth shut where I am concerned. I am not your sounding board.

BTW, The songbirds aren't dying as a result of lost habitat(trees)
Feral and domestic cats kill untold numbers of birds. That's from one of those scientific studies you said Bush trashed. I'll add that, as a hunter, I have never seen feral cats out in the wild. They seem to emanate from the city. Just another of those liberal agendas making it ok for pet owners to shirk their responsibility. The bees are dying from diseases, common to bees everywhere. Not from the hand of man, or his impact on nature. Man is actually going to great lengths to help the bees survive. Spending mounds of that "non-existant" scientific inquiry money you also said Bush trashed.

If you want to see songbirds in the "city" just put up a feeder. Just don't make your yard a killing ground for feral and domestic cats.

I can somewwhat understand clearing trees for highways. I don't understand buying a wooded lot and cutting down each and every tree. Then, we build a home "in the middle of a field", and buy small new trees that will take our lifetime to grow up to the height of the native trees. Why not work with what God put there in the first place?

Some of the trees that are growing now are diseased and need to go. It is always good to plant a tree for those you cut. Trees are not necessary next to highways. Some of us have land where trees are cut and sold to use for lumber. New trees are planted and will be cut and sold in the future to be used for furniture and other products. There is always a new planting of trees.