If your office temperature up to this point was perfect, and you were given the choice between an unobstructed view of Tampa Bay AND a ten degree change in temperature, OR the same temperature and a view of the woods; what would you choose?

I didn’t get a choice. The trees came down under the cloak of a weekend, and I’m looking at Tampa Bay, boiling in my own juices. Sure, I could lower the thermostat – at the expense of those with interior offices. Ah, but there I go thinking about other people again.

I’m sure there was a perfectly good reason for chopping down the trees (increasing property value), but I miss the shade. Maybe the trees were diseased? No, we have it on good authority that they were perfectly healthy. Word on the street says the folks on the fourth floor wanted to see the water, and they had a lot of money to do a lot of free speaking, so four to six healthy trees came down. A combined 200 years of tree growth came down, because of the whims of a few folks who felt bad because they couldn’t see the brown haze on the horizon over Tampa Bay. Say what you will about modern environmentalism, and the rights of humans coming before the rights of those lower on the food chain. Think about this in purely pragmatic terms. Those trees can’t be replaced in my lifetime, but whims can change at the snap of two well adorned fingers. What if those folks change their minds? What if they decide the trees were better than the heat, the haze, and a view of a busy bridge and a power plant? What if they decide an obstructed view of the power plant was worth a 15% reduction in their cooling costs?

You say you need a permit to cut down a healthy tree? What tree? I don’t see any trees.