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Today, under the aegis of Duke Power, Asplundh Tree Service (and I use that description loosely) was busy butchering trees in Tryon, this time along Grady Avenue near Markham.

Although their reason for cutting back trees is sound, what happens when they do this is that over time the tree is weakened and will ultimately die. I haven’t even mentioned the number of birds, squirrels, and their offspring who will perish during this exercise in futility.

How to mitigate this obscene and horrendous situation? Duke Power should be zigzagging their lines back and forth along streets instead of stringing them along one side of the road, thereby keeping tree limbs from falling on the power lines. It’s an easy fix and why they don’t do this is beyond my understanding.

They will argue that the expense is more than they can bear. I call “BS” on this. Duke Power is a shareholder-owned company. I am a shareholder of several companies, and while I, too, enjoy increasing dividends over the years, I hope that I am kind and decent enough to understand that I sometimes have to give them up for the greater good, in this case, a tree canopy that will continue to shade and refresh humans and provide shelter to the animals who share our planet. Further, the cost of doing this is minimal compared to hiring a tree service to ultimately kill trees they are “trimming.”

As I write this, other parts of our planet are being decimated by clear-cutting. More than 70% of our animals have been lost to human intrusion. I can do little about it but I can try to do my part locally. Please join me in telling Duke Power to change its modus operandi before Tryon becomes nothing more than a large parking lot.

 

Beth A. Kinstler

Tryon