Dear editor,Just to be clear about the trees around an airport.The source of the regulations requiring the trees to be trimmed is not from the Comox base, DND or even Transport Canada and the "antiquated" Aeronautics Act.Annex 14 Volume 1 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation titled Aerodromes published July 2004 lists the requirementfor obstacle clearance within a four-kilometre radius of a runway.The Convention on International Civil Aviation is a multi-national treaty signed by 192 countries. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is a United Nations agency like UNICEF, WHO or UNESCO, and was formed as the result of that UN treaty.Canada is a signatory of the United Nations Convention and the headquarters of the agency is located in Montreal.Canada has in the past not enforced the international standards, with the result that passengers have almost died from Canadian failures. The Transportation Safety Board frequently finds Canadian airports do not meet standards, recently and most dramatically with Air France 358 at Pearson Airport in Toronto.Personally, I wish the trees could remain uncut. However, having seen with my eyes some of the bits left of a crashed airliner in which 219 people died, I will err on the side of passenger safety over eagles or herons any day.Nina Usherwood,Comox