Mass tree felling operation by Dublin City Council

paddy147

Dublin City Council is set to fell all the trees on Lennox Street in Dublin 6.

http://www.herald.ie/news/councils-bright-idea-to-save-these-trees-from-damage-3252596.html



Most of the trees are mature 50 year old Maple trees.

All the residents are fighting to save the trees.

Dublin City Council says it wants to chop down the trees to save the trees.
The excuse/reason given for this is that the trees are being damaged and also to prevent any damage to vehicles,and also any possible future damage to basement apartments by the tree roots.

But the residents are at war with the council and do not want the trees removed.The trees give the area its beauty and its character,according to several residents.

Full page article on the story in tonights Herald Newspaper.

So what do you all think about this.

Is it a good or bad idea to fell every Maple tree on Lennox Street??




PS-Before we know it,there will be no trees left in the City,nothing is safe anymore it seems.

magicbastarder

i know someone who works in the council - they're plagued by people complaining about trees, demanding that the council are responsible for clearing leaf falls out of their gardens, demanding that the council are responsible for any flooding, because it's due to leaves in the drains, claiming that the trees are damaging footpaths and their houses. it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

in this instance, the council wrote to residents on lennox street beforehand to gauge reaction.

Oldtree

My first question is who carried out the assessment of these trees and made the decision to remove, was it a suitably qualified arborist?

A lot of arborists would argue that when the wrong tree is planted in the wrong place then the only option is removal because the "art" of severe tree reduction, as against a crown redustion, to the point of where the cuts are internodal, leaves a situation where the regrowing shoots and thence branches have poor cambial junctions with the stems and are therefore hazardous and a danger to the public underneath, and they are right.

However when I worked in London many street trees were severely pollarded rather than removed, including many many sycamores, but would then have planned assessment and shoot removal every 2-3 years. this assessment would be carried out by a tree officer on the council who would be an arborist.

As an example, if you grow a tree in a pot it will become rootbound and this can lead to serious root and tree stability problems, thus trees in an urban environment need to be carefully chosen, esp adjacent to roadways.

Felling all of these trees in one go will be a serious shock for residents. Perhaps an easer way would be to fell every second one and a few years later fell the rest.

Replanting following felling of suitable, semi- mature trees with a management regime is the optimum solution moving into the future.

Is there an arborist here????:

http://www.dublincity.ie/RECREATIONANDCULTURE/DUBLINCITYPARKS/Pages/TreesintheCity.aspx

paddy147

Im just wondering though,if this does go ahead (regardless of how many objectons there are),will this be used as the main reason and excuse by DCC for doing away with trees on many of our capitals streets??

looksee

Hardly an in-depth investigation, but if you go onto google maps and look at the street, only a few of the trees seem to be big enough at the moment to be of concern, but if I lived behind one of the big trees I think I would be grateful for it being either removed or severely pruned. Some of the trees appear to be variagated acers, one needs a big chunk of non-variagated tree removed (unless it is a trick of the light on the map pics) but they are not big trees.

Some of the trees do seem to be out of proportion to the road though, and they also seem to be quite close to the houses. I would love if we had trees on the road where we live, I love trees, but I do agree some these seem a bit big for the situation.

Oldtree

paddy147 wrote: »

Im just wondering though,if this does go ahead (regardless of how many objectons there are),will this be used as the main reason and excuse by DCC for doing away with trees on many of our capitals streets??

While I would still query who has made the assessment, the reasons are all legitimate. I've worked in a similar situation in London where the neighbours were killing each other over the removal of street trees, and sometimes trees in each others gardens too. The unfortunate thing is that the urban tree landscape has and is not managed properly, with the planting of the right tree in the right place with annual assessment.

Even with simple trip hazards the council can be sued for negligence, as roots pushing up through the pavement due to inadequate rooting space leads to corrective action of roots being damaged or removed, which leads nicely into serious avenues of decay into the base of tree, which leads to the tree being unstable and you have to remove for safety reasons before it falls over and potentially kills someones child. The most worrying thing I have heard is that a small branch falling from a height of 10-15 meters can penetrate the skull, so trees are not necessairly benign.

We have to be pragmatic and take emotions out of it, if a tree has been assessed as a hazard by an arborist then the public has to be protected.

Oldtree

looksee wrote: »

Hardly an in-depth investigation, but if you go onto google maps and look at the street, only a few of the trees seem to be big enough at the moment to be of concern, but if I lived behind one of the big trees I think I would be grateful for it being either removed or severely pruned. Some of the trees appear to be variagated acers, one needs a big chunk of non-variagated tree removed (unless it is a trick of the light on the map pics) but they are not big trees.

Some of the trees do seem to be out of proportion to the road though, and they also seem to be quite close to the houses. I would love if we had trees on the road where we live, I love trees, but I do agree some these seem a bit big for the situation.

nail on the head so to speak. it does seem a bit draconian but you could also look at it as the smaller trees are going to eventually cause the same problems as the larger ones at a later date and it may be better to take remedial action now with removal and new plantings of appropiate trees. They would have to be all the same tree as a mix of trees in an avenue looks cronic.

I think it is underestimated how benificial to mental health an avenue of trees is. I am aware of a study done a few years ago in germany where they knocked down a number of badly designed blocks of flats. The rebuilt them ensuring that each flat had a view of trees and green. The suprising thing was that the people then formed a community in the new flats, whereas there was no community structure in the old flats, same people similar sized flats.

paddy147

Get "The Lorax" in to speak to them.;)

Brought my daughter to see this in the cinema,and it gives young kids,and also adults an important message about trees and plants and preserving them.:)

paddy147

Trees,plants and flowers are a big link to mental health,illness and depression related illness.

I would also like to know what and who DCC are using to evaluate all the trees they want to chop down.

Oldtree

paddy147 wrote: »

Brought my daughter to see this in the cinema,and it gives young kids,and also adults an important message about trees and plants and preserving them.:)

As does Ferngully from 1992, full film here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em3TE05GpP4

cena

They should leave them be. I love seeing trees in a place like this. It has a very new york feel to it. Why not get the people to give ten euro per house to clean up the leafs when start falling

Oldtree

something for the schools for tomorrow 11th October Treeday 2012

http://www.treeday.ie/

Oldtree

cena wrote: »

They should leave them be. I love seeing trees in a place like this. It has a very new york feel to it. Why not get the people to give ten euro per house to clean up the leafs when start falling

I agree there is nothing more beautiful than an avenue of trees in a city, the contrast of the stark concrete set off by the statuesque greenery is always magnificent, but sadly the issue is much deeper than leaf litter.

cena

Oldtree wrote: »

something for the schools for tomorrow 11th October Treeday 2012

http://www.treeday.ie/

dOES THIS Mean you can give a school a tree to plant on this day

Oldtree

cena wrote: »

dOES THIS Mean you can give a school a tree to plant on this day

not really, it was just a pamphlet I did up to draw awareness to the tree day and can be printed and handed into the school, is more what I meant.