To the editor:

I would like to respond to the “Tree concerns” letter (Public Forum, Jan. 29). Short-term expenditures and trivial inconveniences are a small price to pay for the future gains of planting trees in what he assumes are inappropriate places.

Appropriately selected trees will grow deep roots and will likely not need watering once established. Tree roots are not likely to damage streets. Road damage is caused by a variety of factors including vehicles, thermal expansion and winter-ice-removal processes.

Trees planted along roadways shade roads from the sun, reducing the serious “heat island” effects in cities. Trees store carbon from the atmosphere and are aesthetically pleasing.

Byron Wiley,

Lawrence