Trees in the city also are very beneficial

Honolulu’s urban "watershed" trees are just as important as our mauka forests. Canopy trees reduce heat gain from our roads and buildings. Shaded paths encourage walking, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves public health.

Unsung heroes like Stan Oka, head of the city’s Urban Forestry Division, and his dedicated staff deserve our praise, gratitude and support.

Next time you grumble about the "rubbish" a city tree is dropping near your house, think about how integral those trees are to sustaining a healthy, beautiful Hawaii.

Besides, your yard would love those leaves as compost.

More trees, please!

Donna L. Ching
Manoa

Central planning highly overrated

Robert Tellander seems to be enamored with China’s central planning economic model, suggesting that the U.S. should compete with — meaning emulate — rather than try to control their approach ("U.S. needs better economic model," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Nov. 9).

Further, he disparages a free-market system as being "massaged by invisible hands."

I suggest that Mr. Tellander Google "China’s ghost cities" to get a good look at what central planning by governments that think they know better than free markets actually tend to create.

Look at a couple of those reports and take a guess where their economy will really be in four or five years. Think 1,000 Solyndras.

Jim Wolery
Kaneohe

Region’s leaders need to stop drifting debris

While the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference delegates discuss trade treaties that will make them all prosper, the public demands to know what the U.S. and the Asian countries are doing to remove the debris dump that is drifting in the Pacific Ocean.

The drifting debris dump in the Pacific is the result of years of mari-time trade traffic between the countries, and they should take responsibility for the debris dump removal.

George Sato
Littleton, Colo.

Introduced gall mites could get out of hand

There are two things we need to be aware of regarding the release of the gall mite to control strawberry guava:

1) The guava is a very close relative of the ohia.

2) All organisms evolve over time, and it is likely that this mite will expand its feeding pattern to include ohia.

I think the rest should be obvious. However, this was not a decision based on scientific observa- tion. It was, as in the case of the reef fish, politically expedient and carries with it profoundly negative consequences.

Kelly Greenwell
Kailua-Kona