To the Editor:

Thank you for the editorial advocating tree planting! [“Plant a tree as an emblem of citizens working together for the common good,” The Altamont Enterprise, Feb. 26, 2025]

Let me add that it is not just a one-time event, where you plant and go away. When you plant, you have entered and continue in a relationship with the tree you planted.

First of all, you have to choose a kind of tree that will like to live where you have room to put it. Then you have to learn how to plant it correctly.

Then you have to water and care for it while it gets established. And, in our neck of the woods, you may well need to protect it from deer (and from voles in the root zone) until the tree has grown up enough to defend itself.

Planting a tree is the beginning of what can be a long companionship with a living being who is not human.

Bill Logan

Rensselaerville