Why do you want a tree here?

Well, when we moved in, there was one more tree.

So since we've moved in, there's been a tree removed.

So I would at least like to bring it back to the equilibrium.

We had it to start.

This anonymous Chicago resident is about to break the law.

Tree law. I think this neighborhood could be more verdant.

Being across from a school, they do have a lot of landscape in front, but it is still a lot of

stone to look at, breaking stone. Hi, I'm writer and conservationist Robbie Telfer, and I am

talking with a genuine arboreal scoff law.

He's breaking one of our city's most sacred laws, planting a tree without permission, on the city-owned parkway in front of his house.

There's an old saying, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is right now.

But it's literally true.

If you want to have a great big old tree

with all its environmental, economic, cultural,

climbing and shady gifts, and you want it immediately,

you'd need a time machine.

I like being in a place that has lots of tree cover.

Obviously this is going to take a long time before it becomes the same kind of stature as what used to be here, but that's okay.

Best time to plant a tree and all that.

So could you anonymize my voice in this story?

Anonymize?

...