To the editor:

For those of you who live in the city of Lawrence, or any other town in Douglas County, this may be difficult to picture. But imagine that the street you live on was each spring attacked by a man-driven machine with a long-armed blade, capable of chopping off branches and good-sized trees. One day, when you came home from work, this machine had traveled down your street, chopping off everything its long extended arm could reach and leaving a crude, thoughtless, barbaric path of destruction in its wake.

This is exactly what happens as standard practice on the rural roads of Douglas County. We are fortunate to live in a particularly beautiful area of Douglas County, with hills and tree-lined roads. For 25 years we have dreaded the sound of that machine, indicating that once again our lovely road would be left looking like a tornado had used it for its destructive path.

Last week, the relentless chopping and grinding machine operated for days, so blind and thoughtless it even destroyed a telephone pole on its way. Now East 1600 Road looks ugly and violated, with hundreds of trees shockingly mutilated. I certainly understand selective trimming to make our roads safe to travel, but this wholesale, thoughtless marring of the landscape should stop immediately.

Gloria J. Hood,

Baldwin