Trees

Our cherry tree was oozing sap all over and had dark dead patches on the trunk and branches. The tree service said it had a fungal root rot and we had to cut it down. Can we plant another fruit tree or a vegetable garden when that fungus is in the soil? Will it sicken us? Your tree's disease symptoms match leucostoma canker, also known as cytospora, which is not a soil fungus and doesn't affect humans. Replant with confidence. In the future, take precautions to prevent a stone fruit (cherry, peach, apricot)

Jim McMartin and Jim Beggins make their living creating beautiful pieces of furniture from the wood Mother Nature leaves behind, and she was particularly careless with her trees this fall. Hurricane Irene rolled through the woods on Maryland's Eastern Shore like a giant bowling ball in August, and now the enormous kindling that she left - tree trunks as thick as a man is tall - lies in the grass behind their lumber yard near Easton, waiting for the hand-tooled magic that will turn the wood into heirloom pieces of furniture.

The Baltimore Tree Trust, a new non-profit whose mission is to "Transform Baltimore with Trees," would like to join the citizens of Baltimore in expressing dismay at the removal of mature, healthy trees on downtown streets for the convenience of the Grand Prix . At a time when our urban forest is visibly in decline and only trees can help cool hot city streets, Baltimore should work with the race organizers to create grandstands where the audience...

Harford Road in the Glen Arm area is closed between Hartley Mill and Glen Arm roads because of downed trees and wires following storms and heavy winds that swept through the region last night, according to Baltimore County police. Authorities have received no reports of major flooding in the county, Cpl. John Wachter said.

The Sun exhorts us to "Speak for the trees" (March 3). That's exactly what more than 2,200 people did when they signed petitions to save the trees in the Mount Vernon Place parks. The plan presented by the Mount Vernon Place Conservancy (MVPC) to the Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) envisions the removal of all (except one) the existing trees and their replacement by 6" and 8" caliber trees. We think that only dead and dying trees should be removed and replaced.

My heart changes like the treeslosing green faith and nesting placestouched to brittleness by coldflaming with farewelldropping tokens of lovedropping pledges to returnand be green again.

I want to comment on the article by Kevin Rector about the development on Hilltop Road ("Activists fear loss of forest near park," Catonsville Times, Dec. 7). The reason that society puts land into preserves, state parks and land banks is to prevent its development. Recently, environmentalists have taken up the cause of trying to prevent the development of land adjacent to that placed in preserves. Environmentalists on the Eastern Shore of Maryland used that argument in an attempt to prevent the development of land next to the Black Water Preserve.

In my lovely old neighborhood of Lauraville, a diseased but still viable tree broke in half and took down a BG&E utility pole, plunging the neighborhood into darkness for a week. Perhaps BG&E could dedicate some of the profits from its impending sale to an out-of-town conglomerate to helping Baltimore's financially strapped forestry unit prune or remove diseased trees in the city. Such an investment would save the utility money in future storms - and there will be many - while sparing families from losing power for days.

Over 600 Howard County residents have signed a petition to limit the number of trees being cut down in Symphony Woods. We accept the basic plan for the park development, however, we object to removing 64 trees for the straight pathways of the CA plan. We are dedicated to preserving this last stand of natural land in the midst of the bustle of heavily commercialized Town Center as a reminder for future generations of James Rouse's dream/commitment to honor nature. Symphony Woods is the only open space that all Columbia citizens have shared.

Howard County government's "Merry Mulch" program will offer tree recycling from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, Tuesday through Jan. 20, at a variety of drop-off sites. Trees can be dropped off at Kendall Hardware, 12260 Route 108, and the River Hill Garden Center, 12165 Route 108, both in Clarksville. Columbia drop-off sites are Cedar Lane Park, 5081 Cedar Lane; and Grandfather's Garden Center, 5320 Phelps Luck Drive. In Elkridge, trees can be dropped off at Rockburn Park, 5400 Landing Road, and in Ellicott City, on the small Circuit Court parking lot on upper Court House Drive.