February is honest about trees. With the leaves down over Leclaire's brick streets, every crossed branch and every hollow shows itself plainly, and that is the month Dex's Tree Service most likes to have a pruning saw in hand. Dormant trimming now means less weight aloft come the June storms, and a removal taken while the ground is still hard leaves a lawn that does not remember the truck. When weather does come up out of the Cahokia Creek bottoms and tears something loose, the storm damage cleanup is that same patient work done at speed. Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Troy and Hamel keep their shade one deliberate cut at a time.