The author makes some good points in this article, but I don't think that providing children a safe play area is a problem. Poor landscaping, the loss of trees, and small lots (with giant McMansions on them) is a problem. I live in a 45 year old house with lovely landscaping, two very large trees and several smaller trees. They make my property feel very cozy and much more comfortable during the hot summers. I am so tired of seeing neighbors (or the city) cut down old large trees. Sometimes it's because they are diseased, but often it is because they don't want to have to deal with the leaves or pine needles. Give me a break people, just go live in an apartment then! Even if you are forced to remove your tree due to disease, plant a new one! Plant two while your at it! Don't contribute to your neighborhood becoming a barren expanse of concrete and browning lawns!

P.S. I just put together a lovely wooden playset that I hope my 3 year old daughter and 8 month old son will enjoy for years. Anything to help them have fun outside.

I feel the same way... I also hate it when, instead of cleaning up the leaves (or having the hired yard service do it), people have all of the leaf-bearing branches chopped off at the trunk level each year. In many cases, the resulting clumps of leaves the next year look like something from a Dr. Seuss story.

I've heard that some "experts" claim that it must be done in order for a tree to survive or do well... Considering nature clearly didn't include an "all branches fall off" mechanism, and the region is full of the same types of tree thriving with only as-needed trims, I can't see how anybody could really believe it's necessary. I assume there are some situations where it's appropriate, but what I'm seeing doesn't appear to fall in that category.

Partially related is another peeve a lot of people share, of course: leaf-blowers, especially as they're also used in place of sweeping dirt now. (Doubly so because the yard service my neighbor hired tends to use blowers at an obnoxiously early hour when I'm generally trying to sleep.) The people I see using those horrid noise machines could probably use the near-meditative effect and exercise from sweeping -- and if I was paying a yard-cleaning service, I'd be so irritated by the noise that I'd refuse to pay for that particular task and give the money to a kid/teen willing to really do the work. Lawnmowers I understand, but that's because the alternative really does take a vast amount more time/energy.