Yeah! For Will Powers and his letter about the destruction of our tree canopy by San Luis Obispo and developers ("SLO is losing trees to development," April 4). All of those examples on North Monterey Street are spot-on. I don't know where exactly the members of our City Council and Planning Commission live, but maybe they don't have any trees in their neighborhoods. Trees are everything—what are we going to do for shade and cooling when they are all gone. And it absolutely pains me to see how some of the trees downtown are treated. I live near the Marigold Center and I can tell you the poor trees there are not thriving.

I live near Laurel Lane and Johnson and it seems almost every week or so more trees are cut down or trimmed so far down they will not survive. And what about all that expensive housing development off Tank Farm Road—where are the trees? A lot of the landscaping I am currently seeing go in looks like it is for the desert, not our cool, moderate climate. I realize we are trying to conserve water, but planting native trees that will thrive and provide habitat and shade is so important. Where would you rather go for a walk or sit outside, in the direct sunlight with no shade or in an area with softly dappled shade and sunlight mixed?

The City Council and the Planning Commission have the ability to tell developers to keep the trees. They have the ability to protect those 54 wonderful, mature trees on Monterey, and any place else in the city where developers want to cut them down. There is no way a newly planted tree can replace a fully mature tree that is providing habitat for birds and other animals. Once they are gone, there is no replacing them. May I remind you that our planet is getting warmer and warmer. We need that natural cooling and shade. Save our tree canopy.

And on the subject of college administrators: Wow, but it does stress the point that colleges don't seem to be about education as their first priority ("Administrative bloat," April 4). I have always believed that the larger an organization becomes, the less efficient it is. Per the 2016 stats, why would you need 262 management positions to supervise 1,405 staff members? Most businesses that need to be accountable could not run this way, so why do we allow our state colleges and universities to do it? Some of this funding must be taxpayer dollars so perhaps we all need to complain to our state representatives, plus stand up for those educators and staff members.

Sharon Roberts

SLO