Tree news – local & international

* Bankstown Council discovered 3 large gums in Greenacre Heights Reserve had holes drilled into them, poisoned & killed.   The Land & Environment Court can fine anyone caught poisoning trees up to $1million.  http://express.whereilive.com.au/news/story/thugs-poison-trees-at-greenacre/

* 12 residents are considering legal action against Hills Shire Council for severely cutting back 15 Tallowood trees in Gooden Reserve.  http://hills-shire-times.whereilive.com.au/news/story/hills-shire-council-is-out-of-its-tree/

* 10 mature healthy trees will be removed from Glenmore Road Public School in Woollahra LGA for the erection of a hall & a shed as part of the Federal Government’s Building the Education Revolution program upsetting residents.  One particularly large tree will be chopped down for a garden shed.  http://wentworth-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/school-trees-dispute/

* An amazing story where the community in West Sacramento trying to save a massive old Butternut tree may take the issue to court.  The tree has a girth measuring 6.7 metres (22 feet) & lives in the “ideal spot for a sewer pump …” Unbelievable. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/09/2878634/w-sacramento-butternut-tree-targeted.html

fern fronds

* Not trees, but I wanted to share anyway. 50 healthy adult Canadian geese were taken from Rapid City’s Canyon Lake Park by the Game Fish & Parks Department & euthanized.  The Canada geese are migratory birds that fly to Canyon Lake.  The Game Fish & Parks Department estimates that between 300-500 Canadian geese call Canyon Lake home this time of year. The number surges around Christmas to the thousands, which is too many for some.

So at a large & beautiful lake, people come with food to feed the geese. The geese think this is great & they come to the mowed shoreline & waggle up to the people who have come to feed them.  Then the geese poop on the grass & cement paths. The people get mad. “I can’t have poop on my shoe!” The authorities come in & start culling the geese. To be fair, the authorities have had a 10 year ban on feeding the geese & even had a $5 fine if caught, but for some reason, this hasn’t deterred people.  http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/article_469cc4e4-b746-58f4-91ab-05035afc1471.html

* The Urban Forestry Administration for Washington DC has called for community assistance to water street trees during the country’s heat wave. While UFA crews are watering all 3,500 new trees we planted this year, we are calling on District residents & businesses to help water street trees close to their homes & offices. Together, we can ensure that these taxpayer-funded assets provide their full environmental, economic, & social benefits for years to come.  It takes less than 10 minutes a week to fill the free slow-drip watering device provided by the city to any individual who adopts street trees through UFA’s Canopy Keepers program. Washington DC has 140,000 trees around the city.  http://parkviewdc.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/ddot-requests-help-in-watering-street-trees/

Gum nuts

* A date for your diary – The 2nd Walk Against Warming will take place on –

• Sunday 15 August 2010 starting at 12 noon
• Meet at Belmore Park (next to Central Station).

Together, we will remind government that we’re doing our bit on climate change. We’re working hard to reduce greenhouse pollution. We’re saving water & energy. We’re buying greenpower. We’re forming climate action groups. It’s time for the government to do their bit.

* The UK Environment Secretary said, If any organism has demonstrated an ability to multi-task, it’s trees. She added that in some parts of inner London, it was calculated that each tree was deemed to be worth as much as £78,000 in terms of its benefits. The Woodland Trust is also launching the More Trees More Good campaign & plan to plant 20 million native trees across the UK every year for the next 50 years. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10434746

* Stunningly imaginative, the Memorial Plaza design at Ground Zero NYC intends to use harvested stormwater for 400 Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) & Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) trees in suspended pavement system. The paving of the plaza will rest on a series of pre-cast concrete tables that “suspend” the Plaza over troughs of planting soil that run the full width of the Plaza. 

The suspended paving system will allow the soil to remain uncompacted, since the paving that people walk on is separated from the planting soil below. http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=new_memorial_plaza

* The National Highway Authority of India plans to chop down 16,000 trees, some over 100-years old, along the picturesque two-lane roadway between Thalapady & Kundapur to make it a four-lane stretch. http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_16000-trees-face-the-axe-on-highway-near-mangalore_1406871

* Andy Kenney a senior lecturer on urban forestry at the University of Toronto & one of his former students has launched a program called Neighbourwoods to train citizens how to do tree inventories in their neighbourhood. “We wanted to see if we could get volunteers to engage in urban forestry beyond tree planting.”http://www.yongestreetmedia.ca/features/neighbourwoods0630.aspx

* New Orleans has a policy of allowing street trees to grow regardless of cracking to footpaths & road surfaces. To see what they allow their trees to become click on the link.

http://thegrove.americangrove.org/profiles/blogs/can-a-street-tree-be-too-big

* The Washington DC Tree Act protects trees with a circumference of 55 inches or more classifying them as Special Trees. Fines for damaging or removing a tree of this size is a minimum of US$5,500. I mention this because they protect trees that would be classified as ordinary.  http://casey-trees-blog.blogspot.com/2009/11/trees-have-rights-too.html

* Detroit USA is reinventing itself now that half the population has gone leaving behind 33,000 empty lots & vacant houses.  Like in no other city in the world, urban farming has taken root in Detroit, not just as a hobby or a sideline but as part of a model for a wholesale revitalisation of a major city. Some farms are the product of hardy individualists or non-profit community groups. Others, like Hantz Farms, are backed by millions of dollars and aim to build the world’s biggest urban farm right in the middle of the city.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/11/detroit-urban-renewal-city-farms-paul-harris

* The US is covering car parks with solar panels, not only to protect the cars from the sun, but to use the space to create clean energy.  I predict this will be commonplace before long. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/the-parking-lot-as-solar-grove/?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment

Camelia in full bloom