Editorial: L.A.'s trees are more essential than ever. The city needs to start treating them that way

While bird lovers, environmentalists and poets have long put a high value on trees, the hard-nosed number crunchers in government have not. Trees have often been treated as merely aesthetic enhancements. Nice, but not essential. That's one reason why tree maintenance is among the first government services cut during a recession.

That limited view is changing, and there is increasing recognition that trees are more than just pretty things. With climate change, big