There is something not to like about plants

These words may seem shocking to you, but I have no trouble saying them, because I think they are true. I suppose it is really not the trees themselves, but their placement, that sometimes displeases me. The event that precipitated this comment occurred about a week ago. Under and around the freeway overpass that is just a few blocks from my home, Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation, cut down dozens of trees and cleared out acres of brush and ground cover, plants in other words, that had been growing there for decades. After a day or two of brutal work at the hands of crews armed with chainsaws, tractors and weed eaters, what was once a dark and foreboding forest is now a wide open space with clean lines and bright sunlight. I have always found it strange that we build beautiful things, and yes I find freeway overpasses to be beautiful, and then clutter up their architecture with foliage that just does not belong there. Trees are not meant to be decoration for our cities. They have the right to live as they form naturally, organizing themselves into communities with multiple species clustering together. What we do all too often is to line them up like soldiers along streets, perverting their true nature. It is a point that Peter Wohlleben makes well in his recent book. It is not good for the trees, shrubs and flowers and it is not good for our cities, streets and buildings. I am sorry that plants had to die, but maybe their sacrifice is a signal that a new form of urbanism, one that does not abuse plants, is on the way.