Taken away after 156 years....RIP

[Grandad]

I have been recording a massive ash tree visible from my back door. The idea was to take similar pictures with similar camera settings through the seasons. All has been gong well and a couple of days ago I took my latest shot because its new green foliage was looking good.

We went out at about 10am this morning and the tree was looking splendid, imagine my horror when we returned about 2 hours later to see a great gap in the view. This collage (to save using up my album allowance) shows the before and after view from my back door. The others are of the felled trunk and stump.



I counted the rings and found 156 so that tree started its life around 1856 when Stephensons locos were running past on the Crab and Winkle line. I am sorry to see it go; as I am with any tree but it was beginning to show disease and potentially hazardous. RIP grand old Ash tree.......

[Horus]

I'm like you Grandad, I hate to see any mature trees chopped down and I wonder just how dangerous it really was, or is this just another example of the 'elf & safety' brigade in action, maybe you can plant a young sapling in it's place?

[Winged Isis]

So much has it seen! Sad when this happens. Many councils in Australia have a law that says farmers must plant 10 trees for every one they cut down.

[Kiya]

Thats a good idea to plant a new tree in its place

[Ruby Slippers]

We used to have a huge sycamore tree at the bottom of the garden and it saw my sons through their tree climbing days but then we discovered that the trunk itself was split in two so we had to have it cut down! If a very high wind had toppled it, it would have crashed through the back of my house - it was that big. I have no idea how old it was but we just couldn't take the risk.

[Horus]

I reckon its OK if it could damage your property or possibly injure someone if it is rotten and fall in a gale, but quite often they get lopped for more trivial reasons. How often have you seen mature trees that suddenly become unsafe when it suits a property developer to have it removed?

[Ruby Slippers]

Very true, Horus.

[Bearded Brian]

It is such a shame to see these old tree go but I wish the two Laylandii (sp) at the bottom of next door's garden would vanish in 2 hours - they take so much sunlight from my garden for anything from 2 to 4 hours - hopefully will have the overhanging branch removed this summer, that will give me back 20-30 minutes.

[Horus]

I agree Brian, the Leylandii is the plague of many people and the laws regarding them is never properly implemented. We lived with two monsters at the bottom of our garden that adjoins with a neighbours property, it was always me who had to ask them to do something to restrict their vigorous growth and it was always me who had to do the actual job due to his laziness. Over the years I had a greenhouse that was totally unusable due to these trees overshadowing it and I had no choice but to get shot of it. The cycle went on for years with me asking him to cut some off the height and him saying “OK, but don’t take much off”. The trunks became so massive that they were pushing my fence panels over and the branch growth extended about 5 feet over my boundary and I had no option but to cut back this growth which of course left me looking at the dead brown branches inside of the tree as nothing grows back other than the outer canopy of this type of tree.

Imagine my joy when one day I was at the bottom of my garden and a head popped over the fence and said “Hello, I’m your new neighbour, would you mind very much if I cut these two trees down as they are shading my garden?” I was ecstatic, I immediately offered to lend him my chainsaw and to help him with the job. I ran into the house clicking my heals and phoned a local hire shop to organise a chainsaw because I didn’t really own one of my own, but I did not want anything to stand in his way so hiring one myself was a small consideration. I took the bull by the horns and told him that as the weather was quite nice and he was at work the next day that I would make a start on the job, by the time he arrived home again from his work he had two huge Leylandii stacked up in log piles in his garden.

Now days there are laws that would have prevented this problem, but they are still rather vague and can be difficult to get them enforced. It should be the duty of any local council who receive a complaint about such trees to issue the property owner with an order to remove it within a specified time otherwise they will carry out the work themselves and invoice the properties owners.

[Grandad]

I was wondering this morning if permission had been obtained to remove 'my' elm tree? I searched the council planning apps and could find nothing although that is not unusual...the search facility is not too good.

When the tree was felled, the main branches were removed and the trunk cut into three and left. I DO hope it will be collected and sent to a local saw mill because there is some lovely ash wood in that trunk and I would hope that some good would come out of the tree's demise.

WI, I like the idea of replanting new trees when mature trees are felled. You probably would not know that one of the initiatives to commemorate the Queens Diamond Jubilee, being led by The Woodland Trust, is to plant 6 million new trees most of which will be in 60 new 'Diamond Woods'.

There is a lot going on here this weekend to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee and whether you are a Monarchist or Republican I am sure that everyone would agree that the Queen has been a remarkable Head of State and superb ambassador for the UK.....

[Horus]

I am sure that everyone would agree that the Queen has been a remarkable Head of State and superb ambassador for the UK.....

Most people would agree with that Grandad regardless of their opinion of the monarchy in general, apart that is from those killjoys who can never find anything good to say about the UK regardless of what the question may be and spend their lives muttering into a lukewarm beer to anyone who will listen, but for all that wouldn't be prepared to give up their British passports.

[Winged Isis]

Nice idea re the Diamond Woods.

She is officially still our queen, and this means little to most Aussies, but it's undeniable she has done a sterling job, one none would take on willingly if given the choice. Long live Good Queen Bess!

[Horus]

I agree that if any country does not want her as their monarch then that's fine, especially if they are built on or turning to the republican model for their constitution. However presidents come and go with great regularity and most fade into obscurity quite quickly, but most people around the world would have heard of Queen Elizabeth II and of course there are still many smaller nations around that are really keen to have her as their monarch and by default share in the pagentry and history and stability that she represents, something that many modern nations lack. When the time comes for her to wave those nations goodbye, I am sure that she will do so with the same grace as she has always done.

[LovelyLadyLux]

At the back of my house there are lots of great huge everygreens. The cones come down and every spring lots of little trees start but they grow into leylandii type trees. Fast growth with nothing particularly beneficial about them. I pluck them out as I go however my elderly neighbour lady loves them. She believes they are 'pretty' and because they are fast growing they can just "grow" which means they end up shading everything here.

They actually are really fast growing which makes them a real nusiance is not kept trimmed and even then you're talking the great huge trucks with spindly flapping branches that break at every strom. I've always found it amazing though how many of these saplings die off ( ) over the ice cold winter months when nobody is out in the yard between our homes. Amazing that the saplings just die and what is more mysterious is that they typically disappear too.

I've of been running to rent a chainsaw too H with a 48" bar!

[Horus]

That should sort it LLL