It is clear that Britain needs a Tree Charter, to stop the endless and outrageous felling of trees. The latest victims are a series of palms in Torquay. These vanished apparently without civic consultation as part of a refurbishment of the famous Italian Gardens, which look out over Torre Abbey Sands. They were first planted in 1924. It seems astonishing and a complete dereliction of duty that "professionals" can carry out arbicide like this, without any public consultation.
What can we do about this?
🌳 A charter to pass into law identifying and then protecting trees in different contexts. For example, the context of the Gap Sycamore as a unique tree in an isolated spot is somewhat different from the Palms that were cut down in Torquay.
🌳 An index or register of trees in each town. Sounds a quite possibly arborean task fit for Hercules, but in reality, each town, village should be able to list its trees, road by road, park by park, as part of the civic architecture. As such the trees should surely be seen as part of the social commons, and also be protected as part thereof.
🌳 An assessment before any tree is cut down. Of course, this is not likely to be a simple task, but there should clearly be (a) civic consultation (b) ecological consultation (c) eventually legal consultation.
These ideas are doubtless simplistic but would at least begin to form an architecture around which we can protect our veteran trees. They clearly need protecting. Outside of deliberate acts of wanton vandalism, there have been so many cases where trees have been felled and we learn the next day, looking at stumps. This has to stop.
#trees #britishtrees #treevandalism #torquay #torquayitaliangardens
Supporting NGOs--KAIROS Toronto West, Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC), local community initiatives
1moOh dear, Mosquitoes/bugs! beautiful photos. We're heading there later, so I'm *sure* the bugs will be gone soon. 😊