Wednesday, January 22, 2003 Trees   On Saturday I went to Scherer Park to videotape the destruction. (If I had known this was to happen Friday, I would have been there with Gigi and Reggie Bannister.) Piles of broken trees are lying on the ground, sap bleeding from their wounds. Splintered trunks, which evidently withstood the bulldozer's onslaught, still stand defiantly. The police compound is surrounded by a green fence which attempts to hide the devastation. Signs on the fence announce that this is private property and trespassers are subject to arrest. Although I saw American Widgeons and Mallards swimming in the lake, warblers and phoebes in the remaining trees, two wedding parties taking pictures, joggers, kids riding bikes and tennis players, I did not see one policeman in the park. (However, the parking lot was full of empty police cars.) In the last six years I have witnessed the destruction of trees at the Naval base, the Navy Hospital, Shoreline Park, the Tree Farm, Stearns Park, Victory Park and now Scherer Park. I am sure that the total of trees lost is over 1,000. Each time the ache in my heart gets worse. How much more pain can we endure from this city? My gratitude to those of you who attempted to stop this. I am so sorry that the bad guys won once again. Ann Cantrell Long Beach