🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <AE774B0C9668B0E59@tygh.demon.co.uk>,
geoff@tygh.demon.co.uk (Geoff Dellow) wrote on !st October 1996:

>In article <AE63F4C1966815C49@tygh.demon.co.uk>,
>geoff@tygh.demon.co.uk (Geoff Dellow) wrote:
>
>>The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA)  will decide whether to
>>go ahead with cutting down all fifty four of the famous 200 year old
>>Rusland Beeches at their meeting of the full Board  on October 1st.
>
>The Board decided to clear fell all the Beeches at their meeting today.
>There appeared to be little discussion at the meeting (I wasn't there). The
>Chairman urged the members to back this recommendation and the proposal was
>supported by a majority of 14 to 10.
<snip>>
>We shall be battling as long as the trees still stand. The next goal will
>be to persuade the Department of the Environment not to lift the
>preservation orders. More details to follow after we have licked our wounds
>!  !

A profound moral issue faces the Department of the Environment in the next
few weeks following their inspection this last Thursday, 17th October of
the Rusland Beeches in Cumbria. The decision by them to support or refuse
the application for the lifting of tree preservation orders on these old
Beeches by the Lake District National Park Authority will have far reaching
consequences to all mature trees throughout the United Kingdom.

There is an increased trend throughout the country to cut down large mature
trees for safety reasons. Thus in twos and sometimes twenties we are
loosing beautiful old trees that provide a natural habitat to wild life
requring rotting wood such as the  uncommon  noctule bats found in the
Rusland Beeches.

Because the average person cannot rationalise  statements about the safety
of a tree, an �expert� is called in . This is where the problem lies. The
expert is called upon to take on the responsibility of stating that a tree
is safe and it takes a lot of courage and understanding of mature trees to
make this statement. It is far too easy to do avoid the problem by
pronouncing a tree to be dangerous.  A tree felledwill never prove you
wrong.

Recently Derek Patch , Director of the Arboricultureal Advisory and
Information Service, AAIS, stated that 26 of the Rusland Beeches were
unsafe and because of his position, the Lake District National Park
Authority followed his advice to clear fell all 54 of the remaining Beeches
at their meeting on October 1st this year, going against the advice of
their officers who recommended that the felling be restricted to the 26.
This decision, carried by a vote of 14 to 10 followed months of controversy
with overwhelming opposition from local people.

However another expert Roger Cartwright who has had the courage to propose
remedial treatment and thus save many trees throughout northern England in
his position as adviser to Cumbria County Council, Lancashire C.C. and
Northumbria C.C. disagrees strongly with these findings, suggesting that
only a few trees are dangerous one of which needs felling immediately.

It is significant that Roger Cartwright�s diagnosis follows closely the
recommendations made in the AAIS�s own series of publications �Research for
Amenity Trees� available from  the DoE (through HMSO) in particular �The
Body Language of Trees� by Claus Mattheck. Derek Patch�s views do not and
differ substantially from the managers of such forests as Epping Forest
that are open to the public. Patch goes as far as to state that even trees
that are away from the public highway and footpaths, but are a danger to
those strolling through wild woods should be felled. He argues that  �the
public are �invited� into the adjoining woodland and as such the risk these
trees pose to them while in the woods, although small, cannot be ignored�
and should be felled. 

If this logic is followed then millions of trees in forests with public
access should be felled which is clearly a nonsense.

Thus the eyes of the local people, many around the world who are following
this saga on the internet and many young people who have little faith in 
the �democratic� system, will be on the DoE  to see whether they are brave
enough to follow the advice of their own officers and of the AAIS in the
form of their publications or to bow to  political pressure to save face.

The Director of the AAIS  clearly has much to loose if his advice is
ignored and the creditability of the Lake District National Park Authority
who chose to follow him, will be in question. Now will the creditability of
the DoE be added to this list?

Many people are preparing for the worse. There is very little faith that a
rational assessment will be made. Thus a concerted campaign of tree
occupation is inevitable if the decision to fell is maintained .The sense
of outrage felt by the local people who intuitively know the trees are safe
from their experience of them in all weather conditions over the last
eighty years and the support being shown by tree dwellers all over Britain
is immense.