Although I enjoy a nice tree as much as the next guy, I'm no arborist. It seems, however, that after we ran a letter in Sunday's paper, and then another one in today's paper on the same topic, I should pick up my botany guide.

The letter writers raise concerns that National Grid (and it's local contractor) is not doing a careful job of pruning trees along Union Avenue. Both writers agree that the trees need to be pruned to keep them from interfering with power lines, but question the extent to which the trees have been cut.

Union Avenue is, without a doubt, one of the most important entryways to our city, bringing visitors from Exit 14 to Congress park, by way of the Saratoga flat track. As a first-year student at Skidmore, the directions supplied by the dean of first year students brought my family's minivan along that route to Broadway, rather than the vastly more efficient exit 15 route, just to show off the lovely town. Many visitors take this route as well, and it serves to set the city's scene for each of those visitors.

That's all well-known to city residents, but the contractors doing the work have likely never had that experience. They're just trimming some trees. But it does come as a surprise that city officials wouldn't be more concerned with the apparent hack-job currently being conducted on Union Avenue. Perhaps contractors could do with a little education, not on trees, but on the importance of this gateway.