Dear Editor:
Mount Forest’s humorous seasonal weather report has sprung into action: almost winter, winter, still winter and … road construction.
Urgent protective attention must be aimed at a row of elegant leafy “citizens” lining the pathway to the Tim Hortons drive-thru. These quiet trees shield area houses from the dust, fumes, noise, and “visual” slander of the automotive stream inching through at the beginning and end of most days.
There is currently a contest to choose and honour the town’s largest and most beautiful tree. We do not slaughter the “contestants” the moment they begin to qualify for the event!
Today’s large trees do double duty. Beyond a beauty profound enough to inspire visual artists and poets, today’s trees are celebrated for their carbon-capture, their water retention and their ability to moderate climate effect and heat.
This is a corner filled with the “human factor” of young mothers pushing prams with babies at noon and evenings under the sidewalk shade of mature trees; teenagers with dogs on leashes getting their “constitutional” trot around the block at dawn and dusk.
Transports be-decked in lights glide by through the night and by 5am the coffee line-up begins for the work commute out of town.
Bronwen Stanley-Jones,
Mount Forest