canberrabirds

O'Connor: Removal of street trees

To: Canberra Birds <>
Subject: O'Connor: Removal of street trees
From: Milburns <>
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:25:58 +1000
Tree felling occurred in Miller Street, O'Connor this week as well.  The original street planting was E. blakeleyi, which is indigenous to this location, and some had grown into fine specimens.  To the uninitiated this looks like a rather untidy tree and the results of insect attack are often seen as a sign that the trees are sickly should be removed.  Fifteen trees were felled between David Street and Macarthur Avenue, including the magnificent specimens on the David/Miller Street intersection.  All of these were significant trees on a landscape scale. 

I was rude enough to examine some of the felled timber that had been stacked up and all were perfectly healthy trees.  The literature we received informed us that the trees were unsafe for the sort of reasons that Robin Hide has already alluded to but significantly also included 'poor condition due to insect attack'.  In my opinion this is not a valid reason to fell a mature E. blakeleyi  that has endured this as part of its annual cycle for over 50 years!  Ironically, some of the smaller trees that are in poorer condition have been left standing.  There was a clear pattern of felling the largest trees and those that overhung  bus stops.

It is proposed that these E. blakeleyi will be replaced with E. mannifera.  There is considerable irony in this because the 'sickly' E. blakeleyi have never dropped so much as a branch while healthy E. mannifera are renowned for dropping dangerously large limbs without any warning on windless days.  Of the local eucalypt street plantings, the probability of branch fall  is as follows: E. cinerea > E. mannifera > E. polyanthemos > E. blakeleyi.   So the question arises "why replace large-growing branch-dropping trees with even worse large-growing branch-dropping trees?"

It concerns me that there is money to be made from this nonsensical felling and replanting process.  How much distance is there between the those that decide where to chop and those that receive income from the process?  The ultra cynical might suggest that the choice of planting E. mannifera provides an on-going income stream for the tree loppers because they are so prone to dropping large limbs in an unpredictable fashion!!

If we are so concerned with public safety why do we persist in allowing cars driven by people on our streets?

Milburn
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