Will the trees in Barry road ever come in to leaf?

[treehugger]

We talked earlier this year about the major pollarding works on the wonderful Barry road trees. I am in no way an expert and really want to hear from someone who is. Most of the other trees around are in leaf, but these ones aren't. Can someone put my mind at rest that they haven't been so traumatised that our road will look like the aftermath of the Somme all year round?

[Nigello]

I was talking to another customer at Homemade Cafe just this morning about this. The pollarded ones look barren compared to the others nearby. Perhaps it is nature's way and they will come back to life next year?

[treehugger]

Leaves seem to be appearing out of the trunk.. Mmm, not sure that's a good sign. Anyway fingers crossed. I am sure the qualified surgeons knew what they were doing - no irony intended.

[pipsky2008]

I noticed the birches on Barry Rd are greening up and the buds of the limes are swelling and reddening on other Limes I have seen in my locality. Give them another two to three weeks to show signs of life.

They have been cut hard and whereas buds at branch tips do not have to exert so much energy to unfold. Latent buds, Epicormic buds, have to be roused from deeper in the heart wood and will emerge more slowly and from unlikely places, around the trunk etc. It may be that the whole of the trunk will explode in leaf buds.

[tiddles]

I posted this very question to James Barber which he passed on to the revlevant dept - who I understand have yet to respond. Are there any tree surgeons who could put our mind at rest? I feel rather disheartened everytime I drive past them (and all the other ones that seem to have been 'butchered') so it would be great if someone could reassure us it is part of a longer term plan to maintain tree health, rather than completely the wrong thing done at the wrong time of year which seems a distinct probability, or a plan to kill off the larger trees (because of insurance claims) to replant with smaller trees.

sorry to sound so snippy and negative.

[fatfightersforever]

Same here Tiddles. Trees butchered in Therapia (again) no response from 'tree experts in relevant department', very disheartening.....yours in snippiness and negativety! tiddles Wrote:

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> I posted this very question to James Barber which

> he passed on to the revlevant dept - who I

> understand have yet to respond. Are there any tree

> surgeons who could put our mind at rest? I feel

> rather disheartened everytime I drive past them

> (and all the other ones that seem to have been

> 'butchered') so it would be great if someone could

> reassure us it is part of a longer term plan to

> maintain tree health, rather than completely the

> wrong thing done at the wrong time of year which

> seems a distinct probability, or a plan to kill

> off the larger trees (because of insurance claims)

> to replant with smaller trees.

>

> sorry to sound so snippy and negative.

[Nigello]

Why is it negative and snippy to ask about what a council department does with our money to such things as massive, old trees that are difficult to ignore? It is our duty to investigate!

[intexasatthe moment]

Another here suffering from silence from Southwark on tree enquiry front .

Particular enquiry relates to death of replacement tree ,replacement required because a TPO'd tree felled .

Even query sent via Robin Cruickshank elicits no response .

And I remain devastated by state of trees in Barry Rd .

[rch]

Was waiting to see what James said, as Barry is in his ward, but am having similar problems here in Village, so I'll chase. If nothing else, I'll see whether it's possible to have the basal growth on the trunks trimmed back over the summer in order to encourage growth on the crown stumps.

I'm not a big fan of severe pollarding, but I'm just a councillor. The good news is that we've had a bit of a change in tree officers so maybe a different management strategy will prevail...?

[Chillaxed]

The poor trees in Lacon Road took a hammering a couple of month ago, and the flowers are few and far between this year. I know nothing about tree mgt but the timing seemed a little strange and I've no idea why one of the trees escaped the worst of the 'trimming'.

[pipsky2008]

No Limes anywhere are in leaf yet. The buds are swelling but non are yet in leaf. As I said earlier in this thread, give it 2-3 weeks and you then should see leaf developing around the cut ends and elsewhere on limbs and trunk.

I saw today at the bottom end of Barry Rd that those buds are developing.

Limes are prone to suckering and trimming the growth off at the base won't make any great deal of difference in how the tree responds. That is largely down to the general health of the tree. Trimming basal growth just keeps it tidy at footpath level.

[UncleBen]

The butchers have been everywhere except the 'urban orchard' strangely. Amazing how this Gristwood & Kill so called arbourists are STILL allowed by the Council and elected reps to get away with this slaughter.

[Marmora Man]

On Marmora the trees have been pollarded - as they have been ever three years since I moved here. They have always responded well to the pollarding by springing into green leaf later in the year and full green leaf the following year. Without this action Marmora would have been impassable many years ago.

[pebs]

Agree with comments here. Are they going to do this every year? Ridiculous. My beef is actually with Southern who have ruthlessly cut down all trees either side of the tracks in south London, with many not close to the railway lines. When you travel by train it used to feel like a green oasis - not any more. All because of the wrong kind of leaves I suspect ...

[Chase Dulwit]

Lets hope we will have a season without all that nasty sap ruining my winsdcreen wipers, sticking my car doors shut and being walked in to my carpets.

I love trees, but bad planning to put them in this environment where the roots are damaging the pavements and encroaching on the house foundations. I'm sure the houses were there before the trees. Understandable that the original planters maybe didnt consider the number of houses which would be converted to flats full of 2-car families.

[tiddles]

yes that sap is sticky, tho I would much rather have a fabulous vista of magnificent trees up barry road rather than rows of sparkling cars.... sorry!

[BecsBex]

When I first moved onto Barry Rd a few summers ago it was lush, leafy and beautiful. That was part of the flat's appeal - the road was pretty. It's been bloody depressing walking through a wasteland for the last 6 months. Today I paid my ?95 council tax installment whilst looking out the window at some stumps. Grumble.

[UncleBen]

Chase Dulwit Wrote:

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> Lets hope we will have a season without all that

> nasty sap ruining my winsdcreen wipers, sticking

> my car doors shut and being walked in to my

> carpets.

>

> I love trees, but bad planning to put them in this

> environment where the roots are damaging the

> pavements and encroaching on the house

> foundations. I'm sure the houses were there before

> the trees. Understandable that the original

> planters maybe didnt consider the number of houses

> which would be converted to flats full of 2-car

> families.

This has got to be a wind up, please let it be! Its not the sap that's sticky, it's the aphid excretions that are sticky as the aphids feed on the sap.

[treehugger]

Thank you for your positive and confident post Pipsky2008, that gives me hope, I would have no issue with pollarding if I were confident that we are going to have our wonderful Barry road trees looking magnificent again very soon.

My husband hates the fact that car looks a mess under the leafy trees, but so what - clean it, or provide employment to others to clean your car. Fingers crossed in three weeks we'll all be much happier.

[Chase Dulwit]

Sorry, not being a horticulturalist I did not realise it was aphids. That doesn't change the fact that I have an obligation to pedestrians and other road users to be able to see out of my car windows. I cannot clean them every single time I need to make a journey. In the height of the season it takes only minutes to get a fresh layer of the stuff all over the car. It is carried by the breeze, so there is no safe harbour if you live/park on Barry Rd.

[The Minkey]

Here's an interesting article covering the pros and cons of pollarding in a city environment: http://ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/112/dingwall/CTX112j_lores.html

[Burbage]

rch Wrote:

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> I'm not a big fan of severe pollarding, but I'm

> just a councillor. The good news is that we've had

> a bit of a change in tree officers so maybe a

> different management strategy will prevail...?

I strongly doubt it, unless the tree budget's heading sharply northwards. The only alternative that would match pollarding in terms of cost-effectiveness would be to chop them all down and I doubt Southwark would appoint a tree officer with that agenda.

As I'm sure you know, Southwark's Tree Management Strategy for 2013 explains the rationale for pollarding (which is what gets the complaints) quite neatly. In essence trees are only pollarded if they've already pollards (and therefore would need pollarding regularly in any case) and/or if pollarding is required for 'insurance mitigation purposes'. Otherwise, they're left alone except for the health, safety and 'basal growth' stuff.

As I'm also sure you know, the business of trees was investigated by the green folk at the GLA in the halcyon days of Blairist largesse in a balanced, short and thoughtful report entitled 'Chainsaw Massacre', which, despite some charmingly hysterical and largely evidence-free prose, found nothing against pollarding except that some residents, presumably those with sheltered lives, thought it looked ugly. It also found that subsidence claims accounted for around 5% of tree removals, and were amply made up for by new plantings. The slightly feeble upshot of this futile blether was a set of bland recommendations including one that the LTAO produce a 'best practice framework' for pollarding, if they hadn't got one already.

If it helps, there are trees in the area that have been pollards since at least the 1950s (it's clear in some of the old photographs), and on Lordship Lane pollarding has been done in sections over the last handful of years, so you can see the effects quite easily just by walking around (if it's easier for your correspondents, they do much the same at the square in St Tropez). Pollarding is a practice that's older than medievalism, doesn't noticeably affect the longevity of the trees, and seems to keep them relatively healthy - pollarded planes don't seem to get Messaria, for example. In towns, it proactively mitigates health-n-safety and subsidence issues (including those that require expensive pavement repairs, given we're on clay), and though it considerably reduces the shading effect for a year or two after, also reduces the amount of leaves that need clearing and thus the number of grouchy letters the Southwark News has to print. It also reduces all the other problems due to overgrowth, such as blocking daylight to houses, interfering with street lights, tangling overhead telephone cables, disrupting satellite dish reception and taking the roofs off buses, all of which can be just as irritating as any aesthetic surprise.

[rch]

Yes, I know all this, but the bottom line is that there is a view that severe pollarding is a false economy if the council have to go back and sort out the problems with all trees like the one on East Dulwich Grove in the attached photo.

[hpsaucey]

rch Wrote:

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> Yes, I know all this, but the bottom line is that

> there is a view that severe pollarding is a false

> economy if the council have to go back and sort

> out the problems with all trees like the one on

> East Dulwich Grove in the attached photo.

Hum - see what you mean about 'false economy - looks like potentially a nice little money-spinner for any contracted tree company?

And why do it in Spring???

H

[the-e-dealer]

Just a Councillor- ?! Heaven help us!

rch Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> I'm not a big fan of severe pollarding, but I'm

> just a councillor. The good news is that we've had

> a bit of a change in tree officers so maybe a

> different management strategy will prevail...?