A tale of two trees

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

CotterPin

Senior Member
Location
London
I am putting this in here because I am not quite sure where it fits. It might be that campaigning may be appropriate but that tends to be a rarely visited part of this splendid forum. Admins, feel free to move if you think it should live somewhere else.

Anyway, this is a tale of two trees, or at least two sets of trees. I am not sure there is going to be any great point to this story but I do hope you allow me the opportunity to share it with you.

In the neck of the woods (sorry!) where I live we have campaigned for an improved cycle crossing for some time to take account of the increased number of users. Some of you in London may know the area. It is in Islington and crosses City Road. Finally the crossing is being improved. There will be better sight lines, a clearer indication of pedestrian and cycle space, amongst other things. It is not all we wanted but it will be better than what went before.

This is where the first set of trees come in. There are a number of plane trees in the area and two of these have been chopped down to make way for the improvements. The local cycle campaign group was alerted to this by a local resident and a campaigner on trees and biodiversity. A stop was then put on any further trees being felled. I think however that only two or three out of the dozen or so were scheduled to be chopped down.

Compare and contrast this with another set of trees. These are on the edge of a town that I grew up and are a part of an ancient woodland. These ones (uncountable) have been felled to make way for a new road.

The interesting thing is that the local tree campaigner in Islington was very upset that the local cycle campaign had in her view condoned the felling of these trees because they had appeared on the plan and we had agreed to the plan (or rather had not objected to it). What was also interesting was the amount of time that the trees took up at one of our recent meetings. You can read our response at: http://www.icag.org.uk/index.asp?PageID=225

I think if there is a point to this rambling (and thank you to those of you who have felt inclined to read this far) it is that I am struck by the contrast. Two trees felled for a cycle facility and the local cycle campaign condemning the loss of the trees. Lots of trees felled for a new road and (I am guessing) silence from the motoring organisations. I may have of course be wrong on that point but somehow I think it unlikely.
 
Location
South East
CotterPin said:
Lots of trees felled for a new road and (I am guessing) silence from the motoring organisations.

I did read your whole post, and I have to say, I'm not surprised at the '...silence from the motoring organisations...' after all they're not renowned for defending trees.

I love the bit about the 'local tree campaigner's' annoyance at her perception that the cycling group condoned the tree-felling.....this, IMHO, is priceless.....;)
 
Top Bottom