OK, so my town is nuts!

[Feanor]

I agree with PS on this one. I think that it's a shame that they cut down what must have been big, beautiful trees but it's only a few trees and it will benefit the town in the long run. Tourists will come to see these carvings and will take picture of them.

When we were in Nova Scotia many years ago, we took a side trip to this little town called Truro. Truro didn't have much to offer tourists, so in order to attrack people they painted all of their fire hydrants as art. The hydrant in front of the church was a nun; the hydrant in front of the police station was a cop; in front of the fire hall was a fireman. Well you get the idea. They were very well done and were all over the city.

This is probably the same type of thing. It will become something that people in the area will want to see and will come to the town to visit when they otherwise might not have.

Could be what they were thinking but it's stupid reasoning:

1. These things are not great works of art: if fact they are vapid and ugly. Who would come to see them?
2. Lots of people will criticize the town for cutting down trees and at least as many will avoid the place on that account as will go to see them.
3. What are the consequences of a misjudgement? It took a day or two to cut down the trees and a couple of weeks to do the carving. But if you want the trees back it will take 50 years to replace them.

Most often this sort of thing happens because the mayor's nephew needs a summer job, or something like that.