Dear Neighbors,

I have recently learned that the mature tree canopy on top of the hill overlooking the Reed School is to be extensively reduced.  In the current design for a new playground, a bucolic, deeply shaded, and highly prized portion of the site will be mostly eliminated for play equipment and paths. The design proposes to remove a large number of mature trees, representing a significant amount of environmentally valuable biomass, and extensively grade the area while preserving vast amounts of flat, open playing field space that could easily accommodate play equipment and significantly reduce the land disturbance.

In place of this uniquely lovely and impossible to replicate natural space, the design proposes new plantings of young American elms, tulip poplars, and willow oaks—commendable choices that will shade children in the future when the trees are mature, but deprive generations of children of the shade of the trees that are being destroyed until perhaps the year 2070.

This area is a natural buffer to the adjacent residences that if preserved could provide generations of Reed schoolchildren with shade, wildlife habitat, noise reduction, privacy, and as we know from basic biology, quite literally air to breathe.

Please let the school board know that you would like reconsideration of the design to incorporate saving as many of these trees as possible.