To the left has been “beautified”. To the right are the 60 year old trees to be clear-felled for more such “beautification”
“Imagine if trees gave off wi-fi signals, we’d be planting so many trees and we would probably save the planet too. Too bad they only produce the oxygen we breathe.” So runs the meme that swept social media recently. Truly we despair here at how hard it is to keep established trees and how ready are so many people to take the chainsaw to them.
Perhaps it is due to our recent pioneer history that we have failed to develop a reverence for big trees. That, and the fact that our houses are notoriously cold in winter and we want every bit of sun and warmth we can get.
There is no argument that large trees in suburban settings can be a problem for residents, especially as sections get ever smaller. That is why we have always advocated for trees in public areas where they have the space to reach maturity and to give grace to our environment. All power to council arborists and parks staff who are tasked with looking after such vegetative assets. For assets they are, although not in a financial sense. A tree can be chainsawed down in a morning but it may have taken a very long time for it to ever attain stature.
What would Cambridge be like without its street trees like these on Taylor Street (Photo: Michael Jeans)
Leave it to the populace – the ignorati – and we would have nothing taller than 3 metres and older than 20 years in urban settings. Can you imagine the main streets of Cambridge without the trees? I do not know the history of those trees but it is a fair bet that there have been efforts by some people over time to take the chainsaw to them. Thank goodness those tasked with the civic environment have stood firm for, without those trees, Cambridge would just be like any other unmemorable small town in New Zealand.
There is no doubt that trees can make a mess. It is called the cycle of nature. Do they make a bigger mess than humans? Would we rather live in paved, concrete wastelands to avoid the leaf drop, the seed dispersal, the spent flowers, birds’ nests and occasional fallen branches?
Imagine the lake scene at Te Ko Utu in Cambridge Domain without big trees (Photo: Michael Jeans)
I write from the heart. We are truly distressed because it appears that we have lost a local battle to save the row of handsome pohutukawa that line the Waitara riverbank. They are sixty years old, just achieving the beauty and stature of established trees, but they are to be clear felled.
“Those trees are past their use-by date.” Ah, no. Pohutukawa have no use-by date. They are a very long-lived tree. “We don’t want them getting too big.” “They are messy.” The fact that they are in a position where they do not shade any buildings and their natural fall of litter does not affect any private property is irrelevant to these folk. “They are not native to this area.” That argument is specious. Not only is the natural occurrence of pohutukawa a mere 10km north of here, but these same folk will think nothing of replacing them with a golden robinia or flowering cherry.
In a battle of jurisdiction between local authorities, where power has been vested in an engineer, the good burghers of our local community board have reportedly been out asking people: “Do you want to keep the trees or do you want the area beautified?” That is a Tui billboard moment.
There is no way to reason with people who see no merit in trees. There’s none so blind as those who will not see and minds have been made up. To such people, trees are completely expendable and of no beauty. They will be long dead before any replacement plants can reach maturity and in the interim there will be decades of a windswept, bare riverbank. It will have an expensive boardwalk and some seats painted sky blue, however, for beauty and history lie only in man-made objects. We could weep.
This is not a story unique to our area. It is repeated often up and down the country in some form or other. Trees need human protection if they are to hold the chainsaw massacre brigade at bay.
First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.
POSTSCRIPT
I see back at the start of 2007, I wrote about these trees in the Taranaki Daily News, saying: “Waitara would be a bleak little town without these splendid trees.”
These trees were planted to hide the ugly sight of the old freezing works. Unfortunately the trees are to be removed but the arse-end of the freezing works will remain. This is, apparently, “beautifying the area”.
Gardening is wonderfully cyclic on an annual basis. I know I have written about sasanqua camellias before but each year they flower prettily yet again. These are the Japanese camellias that light up the late autumn and early winter. There is a softness to the blooms which is in contrast to the stiffer japonicas that flower later in winter and early spring.
If everybody realised just how easy it is to strike succulents from cutting, nobody would buy these plants unless they were new or exciting. This Crassula ovata (Jade Plant or money plant – very good for feng shui, apparently) could easily generate 30 good sized plants or many more smaller ones.
The ground-hugging types which form rosettes are easy to lift and divide. As long as they are replanted in full sun with excellent drainage and light soils, each little rosette will form new roots when nestled into the soil. Tidy up the rosette first by removing dead leaves to avoid them holding moisture in the rotting foliage.
Even succulents with well defined branches will grow. This is Aloe plicatilis or the fan aloe. Unlike usual leafy cuttings, succulents can be struck from very large pieces and you can expect close to 100% success rate. Cut to a balanced shape. Place the cutting in an airy spot and leave it for a few days to dry out. This reduces the chance of rotting before it creates roots.
Stick the cutting into a pot filled with a free draining potting mix (we use granulated bark) It is better to use a mix which does not have much fertiliser in it but this is not critical. You can equally put them straight into the garden in a free draining, dry position. It may be necessary to stake the top if you have a heavy cutting so that it remains standing. Do not try and keep it firm by compacting the soil or potting mix because you want maximum drainage.
Make sure that the cutting does not get waterlogged while you wait for it to form roots, but it will need an occasional wetting. In a few months, most plants will have started producing roots but it will take time for a large or heavy cutting to develop enough of a root ball to keep it standing upright.
Most succulents, including the popular burgundy black aeonium whose name few can remember and even fewer can spell (Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’ or ‘Schwartzkopf’), sempervivens, aloes and many cacti can be increased this way. It is a good activity to share with children.
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 