Cutting down trees

is never something I am happy about.

Years ago a former neighbour cut down a tree in his front garden. His only reason to do it was, "I didn't like it."

He ignored the fact that it was the home of a wide variety of birds. When that was pointed out to him he simply shrugged and said, "They'll find someone else to go and annoy."

The people who moved in after he left quickly planted something else. It's still growing but it has reached about the height  it will be when it has fully matured. The birds are back. 

We have multiple trees on our average suburban block. We might have more than most people. Last summer we lost the apricot tree. It was there before the house was built. My mother asked the builders to save it if they could. They were Italians and understood the importance of fruit trees. They shared the crop that year. There were buckets of apricots. Last year there were none. The tree was simply too old. It died quietly. 

Do I put another one in? Will the next people to move in here feel the same way about trees? Possibly not.

The local councils have banded together to tell the state government that not enough attention is being paid to trees. I agree but they could do more to preserve trees. They need to plant the right sort of trees too. 

There are people who believe that "only natives should be planted" but this is in fact one of the worst things we could do. Someone I knew proudly showed me the gum she had planted in her back garden years before.

   "It's more than two metres around now. The next owners won't be able to remove it."

No, they can't. The law does not allow it. What she did not consider is that there is no space for anything else. The clothesline is covered in bird poop. The lawn does not grow and the new owners have had to do an expensive renovation because of cracking caused by the tree. Yesterday I went past and there was a "tree doctor" parked outside. I could see someone high up the tree. Almost certainly there are limbs which need to come off because gums do lose limbs. Close to other things they can cause immense damage. 

It was the wrong sort of tree to plant in that space. It doesn't do the job it is intended to do. We shouldn't be planting gums in urban areas. They are trees for the bushland, the banks of waterways and the like. 

I have long maintained we should be planting more trees. We should be planting trees which provide food for humans and other animals. This can be done in ways which still provide for a diverse but balanced landscape. They don't need to be giant redgums or other trees unsuited to the urban landscape.  The trees we plant should be of value to the landscape and everything which lives in it. They need to be trees children and animals can climb, which feed all living things, which provide shelter and more.

This morning our neighbour at the back has just looked over the fence between us and asked me,

       "I'm trimming the bottlebrush. Would you like me to take that dead branch out of the fig tree? It should help it."

My answer was a ready, "Yes please." 

It will help to preserve a precious part of my immediate environment.