Lootman wrote:Charlottesquare wrote:When we had a tree warden it was fine, I would scribble him a note of the pruning I proposed he usually said fine, then I got out the ladders and pruned. We have a very, very big old pear tree at foot of the garden that overhangs a12 ft brick wall to neighbours, it tend to need attention every 5 years or so ( we have been here now for 26 years this November)
Now I have to go through planning process to EDC supplying location plan, photos, method statement etc- it is such a faff that I now keep delaying the works that are required, especially as with age my ability up and down ladders with a chainsaw is not as good as it was.
If a tree was at the back of my house and not visible from the street, then I would just chop it down whatever the size. Little risk in doing that.
But there was a tree in the front garden that was obviously too big but the "tree warden" would only authorise minor pruning rather than the surgery it needed. A couple of years after I sold the place the tree collapsed and could have killed someone rather than, as it happened, crushing a car!
Hmmm, we adopt a fairly muscular approach to lopping our forty-odd fruit trees, some of which are on standard rootstocks so they could grow to thirty feet or more if we let them. (You really don't want a rock-solid warden pear landing on your bonce from that sort of height.
) I must admit that I'd always believed that fruit trees were exempt, but our daughter's cherry tree in Manchester did have a preservation order on it.
It's been 25 years since we felled the fifty foot silver birch that had been planted far too close to our house. (Which is in a conservation area.) The tree preservation officer came out in response to our lopping request, and he immediately ordered its removal. That tree's eighty years old, he said, and its heartwood is rotted out all the way down to the ground, although you can't see it. Get rid of it before it kills somebody. And plant a smaller birch, such as a jacquemontii, a few metres away.
We got a tree surgeon in, and he was absolutely right on all counts. But he did say some other interesting things. Firstly, that his department's aim was to maintain the harmonious relationship between people and trees, which usually meant that if a tree was in the way he would normally OK its removal.
And secondly, that he wouldn't even need to be asked before non-native species such as sycamore or ash were removed. In fact, he looked at our neighbour's ash and wished it gone. I doubt he'd be saying the same thing about ash these days, now that it's under theat from dieback fungus.
BJ