LETTER- Why leave trees, chop weeds?

I feel obligated to comment on your "Tough Customer" story, "Hello, hello: Tree dispute falls on deaf ears" [August 9].

How strange that Brenda Jones "has been for the last six years under the threat of home damage, if not personal injury, from several large trees looming from her neighbor's yard over her Fifeville home" and not one Charlottesville official cares.

Yet let someone like Louis Schultz of Woolen Mills grow "weeds" that are over 18 inches tall [News, "Wash out: New developments raise mud and ire," July 14, 2005], and you can bet he'll receive a citation.

How sensible is it for city officials to restrict someone like Schultz– who is actually helping the environment and harming no one when he tries to maintain his property in a more natural state– while not having laws on the books about trees which can indeed cause harm to property and humans?

Please note that the official line regarding "vermin" as the reason for not allowing natural areas in the city is based on a lack of knowledge of the natural world and an exaggerated fear of rodents.

Marlene A. Condon
Crozet

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