Sheffield's shame; Arboriculture's gain?
Jeremy Barrell
Author, tree consultant & Managing Director at Barrell Tree Consultancy. 40 years' experience providing expert advice on built environment tree management, specialising in planning, heritage, risk & expert witness
“After looking at dozens of trees scheduled to be felled in many locations, I didn’t see one that had a good arboricultural reason for removal. In Canada, the goal of Urban Forestry is to have large stature, full canopied trees. Sheffield has just those trees but is now cutting them down. It’s hard to fathom!” Philip van Wassenaer, Urban Forest Innovations.
Sheffield had a repuation as one of Europe's greenest cities, but not any more. The ruling council has removed more than 5,000 street trees in the last five years, with a target of up to 17,500 of the overall total of 36,000, through the 25-year Streets Ahead Public/Private Finance Initiative contract with Amey. In his latest article in the Summer issue of the ICF Chartered Forester Magazine, Jeremy Barrell explains the background to the shocking statistics and highlights:
"A common tactic used by local politicians is the selective misrepresentation of technical information as justification for the tree removals. Hijacking and misusing technical arguments is an obvious matter of professional concern and yet it is difficult to counter without research-based evidence."
"Typical sweeping statements include the trees are mature and at the end of their lives; it is good management to regularly fell and replace trees to create an uneven age class structure; roots are causing highway damage and the only option is to fell; replacing felled street trees in locations more remote from people is appropriate mitigation; trees make pollution worse; and, the heritage value of old trees can be replicated by planting new ones. All intuitively and technically questionable, but challenging to refute, due to a lack of easily accessible and academically endorsed references."
To counter this worrying trend, he is calling for more research into the benefit delivery of street trees over time to assist professionals and enthusiasts credibly refute the misleading use of such technical arguments.
GIS Manager
6 年Trees are no different than any other streetscape infrastructure.? Long-term maintenance and monitoring should be expected just as one would with utility poles, fire hydrants, or storm drains.? Unfortunately tree benefits aren't binary like hydrants, where either they work or don't work.
Tree Pruning Specialist
6 年We have a lot of mediocre species in the wrong spot. That doesn't mean we should cut them down. We need to manage these specimens to an acceptable state. And if they have gotten to be so far from acceptable, then who needs to do a better job? They will otherwise never be ideal. The ideal tree grows to 15m high overnight and then stops growing the next day, living eternally after that, without ever dropping a leaf a branch or a seed. For most of its life every tree will be either 'too big' or too small. So love and support them all. Shade and stormwater control can be assigned a price. But the value mature trees add to your community, your mind, and your instinctive need for vertical green beauty, are priceless. staring at concrete is cold and tempts darkness, while staring at an old tree is pleasant and breeds kindness. Why don't citizens demand more from the urban foresters? I just dont understand. How can we get the taxpayer to demand more?. One positive out of this David, is that tree huggers are born when trees are killed. Its not removal when its unjustified. Its murder. In a world where we just 'buy a new one' we must reiterate that these are not things, they are irreplaceable lives.
Arboricultural Consultant, Contractor, Inventor and Author
6 年Sheffield''s shame will most certainly be Arboriculture's gain if we ensure that it the subject of a long term study. The study would need to define, measure and document the negative (and any positive), implications of the current?counter intuitive (and seemingly unstoppable),? tree management plan . In fact, for anybody promoting more sympathetic tree management, this Sheffield tree management plan, might just end up being a gift .
Expert International Environnement chez Expertise Environnement et Parcs Public
6 年As?they?say?in?my?country (France), though,?when?you?want?to kill your dog, youaccuse?it of?having rabies.?Plant the good trees at the good lcation and keep them for a long life (2 / 3 centuries)