As an arborist for over 25 years, I would not disagree with your editorial (18 July) that trees are literally part of the air we breathe. What I object to is the rise of the celebrity tree. All trees are equally important. In terms of the natural environment, the Sycamore Gap was just a tree, no more no less. The men who cut it down arguably deserve to be punished, but if they had been given community sentences working in woods, for example, they may have benefited from some shinrin-yoku and emerged as more enlightened souls.
Paul Goetzee
Liverpool
• No mention of Spike Milligan’s cure for sea sickness in your praise of trees. It always works.
Robert Glen
Port Seton, East Lothian
