Never nice to see a mature tree felled – especially at this time of year when the sap is rising.
Maybe, like me, you may have been wondering – while waiting for the traffic lights at the London Road end of the Gloucester Road to change – why one such specimen was felled yesterday.
It was standing on the road side of the wall to Alice Park.
On my behalf, Lambridge councillor Joanna Wright made contact with Denise Hart who is Tree Manager for the council’s Parks and Greenspaces team.
She replied:
“Whilst carrying out routine inspections of the council’s trees last week the council’s Tree Inspector identified the fungal disease Kreitchmaria deusta at the base of this Lime tree.
As this disease is detrimental to the structural integrity of a tree and Lime trees are a species that are particularly compromised by this disease it was decided to fell the tree at the earliest opportunity as this location has very heavy traffic flow.
The council’s tree team were able to respond very promptly to fell the tree, but this didn’t give sufficient time to put up the usual notices explaining why a tree is being felled.
This location will be added to the schedule for replacement tree planting.”
I have asked the council numerous times to replace the tree on the Avenue in Combe Down they felled about 5 years ago and they still haven’t managed it. The schedule for replacement tree planting is a bit theoretical in my experience.