Timber Troubles

The American poet Joyce Kilmer penned the famous line “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.” It’s a nod to the glory of nature. But Zocalo Public Square columnist Joe Mathews has had it up to the highest branches with California’s trees. He says trees are causing all kinds of problems for the state. Raging wildfires are the most dramatic example, but that’s just the start. And Mathews blames the trees themselves. He says it’s clearly beyond the capacity of humans to manage the state’s forests – so it’s time for the trees to adopt some accountability and come up with solutions of their own.