Employing a regretful tone, Rechner aims to elicit sadness within an audience of urban habitants, positioning them to support his proposal for a ban on removing landmark trees in urban areas. The opening of his passage, with words such as "mourn" and "loss" intimate his aggrieved tone, connoting the death of something dear, immediately evoking a sense of distress within the readership . Following this, he describes the tree as a "valued neighbour". The subject of the author's grief is unknown at this point, and the anthropomorphic alikening of the tree to a fellow inhabitant is likely intended to emphasise the importance of the issue, as it is implied that a human has died. Indeed, as Rechner exposes his lamentation over the loss of a local tree, it appears as if significant trees maintain a human-like presence in the neighbourhood, and therefore the loss of one is akin to losing a neighbour. Rechner makes the suggestion that the removal of trees is ofter a precursor for "another house demolition", criticising the prioritisation of urban development over these natural landmarks. The implication is that the perpertrators of the suburban expansion are at fault for the loss of such significant trees. In this way, an empathetic audience are inclined to direct their grief and frustration at this demographic for their careless destruction of sacred natural monuments. Furthermore, in his barrage of epithets for the tree, in which he invokes a plethora of positive sentiment, in "landmark, absorber of carbon dioxide...balm for urban stress", Rechner reminds readers of the many benefits there are to trees in urban areas. Ending the extended sentence with the abrupt "gone", Rechner intends to emphasise the sense of irreparable loss that has been wrought by this example of tree-felling. Additionally, in quoting poet William Blake, Rechner uses the poetry to suggest that such beauty is destroyed at the hands of those who demean these natural landmarks to a "green thing" that is "in the way", thereby conveying the debasement of beauty in the eyes of the antagonistic audience. Rechner's apparent intention is to provoke frustration within the readership, and therefore orientate them towards supporting his calls for greater regulation of suburban trees.