Joyce Kilmer would agree with tree war

"Why are we worried about trees?" inquired a Wheaton resident in a letter published Jan. 30, in which he wondered what was all the fuss about ComEd's ruthless eradication of trees along its right-of-way, which happens to include the beautiful Illinois Prairie Path.

Had the letter's author never heard of Joyce Kilmer and his poem, "Trees," which opens with the lines, "I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree"? Had he never walked the trails at the Morton Arboretum in the four seasons? Had he never paged through a tree book, such as "Trees of North America"? Had he never smelled the fragrant blossoms of a black locust in the spring?

A "tree" isn't just a "tree." It's an Austrian pine, a bald cypress, a European beech, a dawn redwood, a scarlet maple, a Colorado fir, an American hornbeam, a shagbark hickory, a tulip tree, a sassafras, a cedar of Lebanon, a white oak, a Sitka spruce, a quaking aspen. The list goes on and on.

Battling ComEd over its senseless destruction of trees is indeed a worthwhile cause. Yes, this should be a high priority for the Du Page County Board. I'm sure Joyce Kilmer would agree.

Joe Schrantz

Villa Park