
This photo was sent to me by a local resident. As you can see, there is a significant amount of the canopy on the ground ready to go through the woodchopper. The tree that was pruned is visible behind the woodchopper. Thanks to the resident for allowing me to use this photo.
It is the season of peace & goodwill & I would prefer to be writing positive posts. However, I am getting messages from distressed residents about Inner West Council – Marrickville’s tree pruning, so I need to write something.
Inner West Council is currently pruning the street trees in Marrickville South. I spoke to Council’s tree pruners earlier this year, so I was surprised when they were back again so soon.
Our street trees get “managed” from all directions – Ausgrid, development & Council. Vandals also do things to the street trees, though I am not suggesting that Council are vandals. Imagine having three groups coming on a regular basis to give you a haircut & maybe lop your ears off. It is no wonder so many street trees look unattractive.
My observation with pruners is that they come once to prune. The next time they come they take off more branches that were deemed okay the last visit & no, they haven’t grown so much to be noticeable. Ausgrid does this & over. In a very short time, the trees get reduced into a shadow of their former self. Ausgrid prunes the top & Council prunes the bottom.
Inner West Council – Marrickville says on their website –
“Street trees will be pruned to:
- Remove any dead, dying or dangerous branches
- Allow clearance for pedestrians and vehicles
- Allow clearance to buildings (where practicable)
- Improve their health and structure.”
So, what is the problem? This is what has been relayed to me.
“I had no knowledge that this was happening today;… Apparently, they are pruning to Australian standards & to protect workers so grass can be mowed, and so footpath is clear & people can walk to their cars. [they] were saying most people want the trees cut out!!” Sounds reasonable except if you know the tree was not causing a problem to begin with. I know this tree. It was not intruding on the footpath, nor did it prevent people from getting to their car. What it did have was branches low down on the trunk & as far as I have observed, this is not acceptable by Council.
“This work is being done on the smaller trees to “shape them” and make it easier for council to cut grass from base of trees and away from pedestrians using footpath. This means that the trees look like pom poms and the removal of the dense bottom canopy is not appealing at all to me.”
“Contractor tried to tell me it’s not my tree & I have no right to protest it’s being trimmed; when I lovingly water it I feel I have some say in its up keep! And will continue fighting for it to live!!!!” The photo above will show you just how much of the bottom canopy of this tree was removed.
The residents do not believe the trees needed pruning & if the tree did by Council’s standards, the residents believe that the pruning was excessive.
It is heatwave conditions at the moment. The weather forecast for the next week is four days well above 30 degrees & five days of extreme UV index. It can’t be good for trees to undergo so much stress in these weather conditions. I recently learnt that trees can get sunburnt. We still have the really hot months ahead of us.
The trees are in flower providing much needed food for wildlife & also beauty for the streetscape. Many people wait for the flowers on trees to bloom. Much of the flowers went into the woodchipper.
Surely it is better to prune trees when they aren’t in flower. It would not matter so much if we had tonnes of food-producing trees across Inner West Council – Marrickville’s section, but we don’t. Bird-life would not be missing out on essential food supply.
Inner West Council Marrickville says on their website –
“Proactive maintenance based on an annual cycle and is carried out in within a precinct according to the calendar month, i.e. January is precinct one, February is precinct two and so on.”
I downloaded their map & saw that Marrickville South is allocated June, the 6th month. It is December, the 12th month. Enter the website via the Marrickville portal & they say they are doing street tree maintainance & list streets in Balmain. That’s a bit confusing.
To finish, I do believe Council needs to ensure that their pruners do not over prune. Council put up signs saying Ausgrid was over pruning trees. This was great & wonderfully supportive for the community who were reeling from the damage to street trees done by Ausgrid pruners. What is not so great is the community perception that Council are doing the same.
6 comments
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December 24, 2017 at 5:55 pm
tonytomeo
Does your municipality happen to be designated as a ‘Tree City’ by the International Society of Arboriculture? It is something that some municipalities like to brag about once they have attained such designation. I ask because in order to maintain such status, a municipality must conform to the standards of the International Society of Arboriculture.
December 25, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Saving Our Trees
Nothing like that here that I know of Tony.
December 24, 2017 at 8:30 pm
jancallen
There is a tendancy for Councils to ignore pruning dose and to overprune young trees, removing too much foliage at one time. Why do they need clearance for mowers? Most residents look after their own kerb don’t they?. Just get rid of the grass and plant out the kerb or mulch it. Mowing is a banal pastime. Councils are happy to spend resources to mow grass once a fortnight but only want to prune the trees once a year?!
December 28, 2017 at 12:26 pm
Roger
4 or 5 trees removed in Black St, Marrickville, opposite Annette Kellerman Pool in Enmore Park…what is going on around here??!!!
January 1, 2018 at 12:41 pm
Saving Our Trees
Thanks Roger. I went to Black Street yesterday. No notification of removal on Council’s website, so they must have been under 5-metres. Then again, 49% of our street trees are under 5-metres.
February 7, 2018 at 7:23 pm
Roger
Yes and that’s probably because they don’t get a chance to get any bigger!
I feel that most trees under 5 metres are in many ways the most beneficial in many streets as the lower canopies are better for screening traffic and most importantly filter some of the pollutants between the road and footpaths/housing.
I’m curious as to who recommended that the removal of ‘under 5 metre’ trees is not worthy of public notification. As you said, if nearly half of our street trees are of this size, we should be a bit more vigilant about their care – I seem to recall that the Inner West has the dubious prize for the least tree cover in Sydney. How sad.