Editorial: Spare us from clowns and idiots

What did we ever do to deserve citizens so uncaring they think it's a fine thing to cut down our mature trees?
No, I'm not talking about local councils, although you do sometimes wonder when trees come down in the name of civic progress.
To be fair, our councils are for the most part the protectors of trees, not the destroyers.
The same cannot be said for the blokes (and it will be blokes) who chainsawed large poplar trees at Omarunui Rd and at Dartmoor.
You had to like the description of these vandals as "clowns being idiots". Those words came from Hawke's Bay Regional Council operations engineering officer Vince Byrne, who was clearly irate at the loss of the trees and the thousands of dollars in clean-up costs due to their illegal felling.
It is possible the culprits cut the trees down with the intention of returning to chop them up for firewood - denying any knowledge of the original act if questioned.
Either way, they are still clowns. And idiots.
We have not yet got over the mindless felling of iconic palm trees in Napier and now we have more such destruction in a region that needs more trees not fewer.
Fortunately, there are plenty of people prepared to do more than their fair share to assist in greening our landscape.
On the same day Hawke's Bay Today reported on the most recent examples of wanton tree vandalism, we also ran a story about 50 people who turned out to plant trees in Pakowhai Country Park as part of Honda New Zealand's TreeFund project which has already been very active at Tutira Country Park.
Local Honda dealership managing director Russell Greer said more than 450 trees and shrubs were planted at Pakowhai at the weekend.
Thank goodness for that.