Trees
We have a local issue with regard to best appraising the public and professionals on the true value of trees.
Years ago I was supervisor at Arboretum South at Kew and then a Director with The John Lewis Partnership where Waitrose Supermarket car parks presented slightly different challenges than those posed at Kew.I think that we are reaping the results of botanical knowledge streams being cut off from local authority tree planting. This happened in the late 60's 70's when Parks Departents lost control of urban landscape.Millions of innappropriate trees were planted and the demands for tree surgery are subsequently high.
Large trees even if they are safe are treated with suspicion rather than respect and this is giving developers excuses for removal of trees to create extra car parking spaces.
In 1984 when I was Chairman of The Hampshire, Dorset and isle of Wight branch of The Horticultural Trades Association I created a valuation system to contest a nurseryman's client who said the prices the guy was charging for very mature stock were too high
It is amazing what values are revealed when one simply projects sizes of readily available stock upwards into large specimens.
A thorough gathering of knowledge would help our businesses if only to get across to people the value of what might be just accepted as local trees.
I attach a valuation I have done for Chamaecyparis lawsoniana.
Years ago I was supervisor at Arboretum South at Kew and then a Director with The John Lewis Partnership where Waitrose Supermarket car parks presented slightly different challenges than those posed at Kew.I think that we are reaping the results of botanical knowledge streams being cut off from local authority tree planting. This happened in the late 60's 70's when Parks Departents lost control of urban landscape.Millions of innappropriate trees were planted and the demands for tree surgery are subsequently high.
Large trees even if they are safe are treated with suspicion rather than respect and this is giving developers excuses for removal of trees to create extra car parking spaces.
In 1984 when I was Chairman of The Hampshire, Dorset and isle of Wight branch of The Horticultural Trades Association I created a valuation system to contest a nurseryman's client who said the prices the guy was charging for very mature stock were too high
It is amazing what values are revealed when one simply projects sizes of readily available stock upwards into large specimens.
A thorough gathering of knowledge would help our businesses if only to get across to people the value of what might be just accepted as local trees.
I attach a valuation I have done for Chamaecyparis lawsoniana.
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VALUATION 2.xls, 25 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Thompson on -
I have huge sympathy for what you are saying. Working on the external works coordination of a number of large PFI projects, I often had to fight very hard to ensure the survival of large specimens. New planting is invariably saplings. Mature trees are seen as an inconvenience by contractors; who would prefer to completely level the site for efficient access for construction and then totally replant young specimens afterwards.
The diminishing number of Large specimen trees in London is well documented. I lived in Bloomsbury near Russell Square for a number of years. It is the large number of magnificent mature trees that make this area such a pleasant place to be. So, I was horrified to see one particularly beautiful mature cherry tree scheduled for termination. It was in a row of four identical trees, bordering a small park, in an other wise very hard landscape. The tree had root disease. Having made some research and consulted an expert arborculturalist, I discovered that disease could have been treated. I tried my very best to save it; the local council made some sympathetic noises; they postponed the felling; but, finally chopped the tree down anyway! The truth is: councils seem to always err on the side of extreme safety. If there is any remote chance that they will have any liability, they quickly resort to the chainsaw! My council promised to replace the cherry tree with a sapling; one that would take 60 years to grow to the size of its neighbours. Over, three years later there is still only a stump sitting incongruously between three otherwise beautiful trees, full of spring cherry blossom.
Local government behavior needs to be modified; before we end up having to live in a very hard urban landscape.When I get a chance, I'll post some links to my research . There is a society for the preservation of trees ... I'll post a link to them too.
Thanks for your Information - I'll take a look when I get a chance and try to distribute it.
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Permalink Reply by Graham Burgess on -
I will keep you in the frame re developments, I am sure you will be able to make positive inputs. Key in the knowledge is real examples.
Not far from here is a park for which I did a masterplan. During the research I found that one of the cedar trees was what one would call a runt. It was so much smaller than the rest and some "discerning" gardener might have removed it.
It turned out to be the first introduction of Cedrus libani brevifolia. I sussed out that Cedars of Lebanon had been long part of a major industry in the Lebanon and they have removed most of these "runts" as their potential for producing timber for temples etc was not good.It was many years after this tree had been planted in this Hampshire garden that the species was officially found in Cyrpus and years before it was officially named at Kew.
Cherries are not what I would call long lived and some might deem that a reason why we should not plant them.Try telling that to the Japanese.
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