Nicole Knight
Arts Editor
Disguised among nature, cell phone towers have crept into California’s landscape. In order to deceive the public, these cell phone towers have been masked as trees.
Take a closer look at the next clump of palm trees next to a new housing development. One towering palm tree freshly painted will stand taller the other growing palms struggling to keep up with the imposter. At night this clump of palms will appear extremely peculiar as the fake tower palm blinks red lights from its branches to warn low flying planes.
When driving on the freeway, don’t be deceived into praising the new landscaping complete with Douglas firs. At second glance, anyone can see the cell phone tower draped with leafed branches and simulated brown bark.
Although not all cell phone trees are mischievously hidden. They can be found sprouting out of dumpsters, behind grocery stores and among industrial buildings. These trees flourish in cement and are installed in full-size.
Why have these towers been horribly masked? When considering the nature of a cell phone tower, it’s easy to see why cities have hastened to mask the intruders. There has been concern of harmful radio frequencies emitting from these trees. Cell phone signals carry the same frequency range as microwave ovens at about 100 gigahertz.
I know everyone does not want dangerous waves wafting around their cities. But, I think people would be more terrified of the thought of losing their cell phone reception. It’s amazing how the public needs these “commodities” covered up to keep public sanity, when we are ones keeping up their demand.
It boggles my mind how the public would rather remain ignorant and deceived than face the reality of these towers we created.
I can’t go more than a few miles on the freeway without spotting one of these disgusting displays of deception. I am especially bugged about the lazy upkeep of these “trees” around my own city. Colors have begun to fade and branches have drooped a few inches on the aged towers. The old trees stick out like rotten fruit among the health natural growth surrounding it. If the city is going to encourage ignorance, can’t they do a better job of at least making it look nice?
In 2002, industry officials counted more than 128,000 fake trees in
America. And no doubt the numbers have skyrocketed in Southern California with the recent growth of housing and retail development at every open land plot.
The growing presence of these tower trees makes me wonder if this is the beginning of long road of future deceptions. What’s next? Warehouses disguised as hillsides, telephone wires pretending to be jungle vines, smoke pipes masked as mini-volcanoes—the possibilities give me chills. I just hope I’m not around for the day fake trees and plants overpopulate nature. Or even the day I see a cell phone tower tree in the middle of Yosemite National Park.
Perhaps these fake trees could spout oxygen or vitamins into the air to make up for dangerous radio waves. But I doubt the public would vouch for such a proposition, it seems we are completely satisfied not knowing about our self-created health threats. As for me, I will always sneer at the scandalous fake trees looming over my city and stare in amazement as people around me ignore the conspiracy shadowing their backyards.
Nicole Knight, a junior journalism major, is arts editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached at nknight@ulv.edu.
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