I read with dismay Roy Sparling’s letter to the editor (“Remove tall palm trees in Sun City,” Sun City Independent, July 22, 2020).

He thinks it is a good time to consider removing the extremely tall palm trees in Sun City. He cited several reasons to do so — they don’t provide much shade and consume lots of ground water. He also said that senior communities in California and Florida have removed the palms as they “had become a highly visual ‘passe image’ of those communities.” Roy said they also wanted to “reinvent their image as vibrant and contemporary communities.”

Sun City palm trees, decorative orange trees, grass and foliage are anything but “passe” in my book. They are wonderful original design features of our Sun City oasis. As we all know we are gradually losing these landscaping wonders anyhow. Natural desert landscaping is a growing cancer in Sun City. We are losing our trees and grass; replaced by hot rocks and sand, creating heat islands everywhere.

Roy will eventually get his way, no doubt. These beautiful tall palms are getting old and dying out. They get to the point where they can no longer be safely climbed and trimmed and must be cut down. But Roy, please don’t lobby to hasten their demise. They are indeed a unique feature of our desert oasis.

Rich Andrews
Sun City