Some time ago there was a huge outcry when the sycamore tree standing in the gap in Hadrian’s wall was cut down in an act of vandalism. (Anyone wanting sycamores, by the way, can still find lots of seedlings popping up in my garden.) it wasn’t really long enough ago for us to have completely forgotten about it. And now another longstanding tree has been cut down.
And now another longstanding tree has been cut down.
This was an ancient oak tree which stood in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, on a pice of land leased by the council to a Toby Carvery. It appears that the Toby Carvery people were concerned that branches might fall on customers and they arranged for tree surgeons to look at the tree with a view of removing some branches. They said that the tree was dead, or at least diseased, and recommended cutting it down which duly happened and has now been reported to the police! was an ancient oak tree which stood in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, on a pice of land leased by the council to a Toby Carvery. It appears that the Toby Carvery people were concerned that branches might fall on customers and they arranged for tree surgeons to look at the tree with a view of removing some branches. They said that the tree was dead, or at least diseased, and recommended cutting it down which duly happened and has now been reported to the police!
The deadness or otherwise of the tree seems to be debatable. It was around 500 years old and its trunk was more than 6 metres in circumference. As someone in a news report commented, that tree was around when Gut Fawkes and co were plotting to blow up parliament! It had seen a lot of history.
The trouble was that while it was listed on the Woodland Trust inventory of ancient trees, it was not the subject of a tree preservation order. So they went ahead and cut it down! Now the council has placed a tree preservation order on the remaining trunk and experts are looking at ways of encouraging regrowth.
On a blogpost by the tree company Thor’s Trees they said, “Ancient trees like this one are living ecosystems in themselves. This oak was a lapsed pollard, a sign of historical land management, left to mature over centuries into a vast and unique habitat. Its sheer size and age meant it was home to hundreds of species, many of which rely solely on old trees like this to survive.”
The very act of cutting it down must have been a complicated matter in itself. When we visited our son in Buckinghamshire recently, and took a trip to what remains of Berkhamsted castle, we watched the process of cutting down a quite large, mature tree, nowhere near as large and mature as the Whitewebbs Park oak. When we parked the car we saw that they had removed the branches and were getting started on the main trunk, one short section at a time. After the children had spent best part of an hour running around the castle grounds we headed back to the car. They were still busy cutting rounds off the tree trunk. Fascinating stuff!
We need to be careful with our trees. They are useful. It’s quite distressing to see tree surgeons at work removing something that has spent years, maybe decades, quietly growing. Well, I personally find it quite distressing!
Another thing we need to take care of is the bee population. Most of us are aware by now that we really shouldn’t spray weedkiller on the dandelions that abound at the moment. Some people are aware and go ahead and spray them anyway! Not good! Neither should be go around uprooting them because the dandelions are an important early source of nectar to the bees and other insects. Surely most of us have seen the warnings that if the bees die then that will be end of the human race on earth!
And now it seem there is another threat to the bees and butterflies and other pollinators. When wild flowers grow in urban areas where buildings, especially factories, have been demolished they absorb toxins that have leached into the soil. Then the pollinating insects come along and absorb in their turn arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead from contaminated soils. And bees are dying! And we are seeing fewer butterflies than we used to!
The scientists who carried out the study are now recommending that urban areas are tested for contaminants and potentially cleaned before wildflowers are planted. Is that going to happen? I wonder.
We keep discovering a greater variety of ways in which we have successfully messed up the planet … and continue to do so.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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