Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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cab
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Any down side to this? A way to protect tree/fruit cultivarsThinking aloud here...
We all write to our local authorities (specifically councillors, grounds keepers, those in arboriculture, etc.) with the following suggestion.
Councils up and down the country spend millions of pounds on trees and shrubs to make our lives more interesting and to maintain a high standard of care in our local environments. While accepting that generally they do an excellent job, it would be possible to improve matters and also contribute enormously to maintain local heritage pretty much everywhere in Britain.
The United Kingdom has an amazing history of producing plant varieties; every region has trees, shrubs and fruits developed locally. While we have been developing these plants for generations, in recent years many of these varieties have become scarce. It is accepted by most that the best way to protect these varieties (which are as much part of your local heritage as any buildings, artwork or writings) is to grow them, to maintain the plants where they're visible and generate more interest.
A proportion of the money spent on tree planting across each local authority could be spent on precisely this; not as a charitable thing at all, but simply by selecting appropriate local strains we would achieve a massive amount; we could see real improvements in the conservation and recognition of local cultivars.
This is not a suggestion that we need to plant fruit trees everywhere; not all locations are appropriate for all sorts of trees, but out skilled civic arboriculture teams understand and appreciate these matters and can be trusted not to take this too far.
I believe that this would elicit great public interest, and would go a long way towards protecting local varieties right across the country.
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tahir
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I spend some time on an arbs forum, they face a constant battle to keep planting stuff like horse chestnut (car damage), sycamore (pollen allergens), plane (leaves), rowan (fruity mushy waste), lime (sap) etc....
Local authorities want risk free trees, fruit trees aren't
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cab
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Yeah, I've encountered that (was talking about it with a chap who works for the arboriculture people here). Thats why such an approach isn't going to apply for every single tree. But when I look around I see, say, lots of whitebeam, rowan, cherry etc. being planted. I wonder whether, say, any of the local greengage varieties would be THAT much more troublesome?
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tahir
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| cab wrote: | | I wonder whether, say, any of the local greengage varieties would be THAT much more troublesome? |
I agree with your idea, but the tree industry is veering towards a very "safe" place, our greengages attract plenty of wasps in summer, what if a person stung by a wasp went into anaphlyptic (???) shock? I'm not saying this is a sensible reason not to do it, just highlighting the kind of risk factors that a council might consider.
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cab
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| tahir wrote: | | cab wrote: | | I wonder whether, say, any of the local greengage varieties would be THAT much more troublesome? |
I agree with your idea, but the tree industry is veering towards a very "safe" place, our greengages attract plenty of wasps in summer, what if a person stung by a wasp went into anaphlyptic (???) shock? I'm not saying this is a sensible reason not to do it, just highlighting the kind of risk factors that a council might consider. |
Good point. Although you get allergy problems associated with all kinds of trees, and I think its a shame to see public bodies fall for a red herring.
I've sent a letter about this already to our local tree chaps; can't hurt to have a go.
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Mrs Fiddlesticks
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Here in our village a group of us (a local environment network group) are working towards planting a new small community woodland - about 1000 trees
We have the local landowners agreement and we're in the process of taking sponsorship for trees ready for it to be planted in the autumn. The mix will be English native woodland trees. I don't suppose any of us will see them mature in our life time but its captured imagination as folk realise they can plant trees in their childrens' names for example.
That may be another way to up the tree count and make sure it is native species that are planted.
I think I'm right in thinking that councils want trees that don't grow too big, disease free, pollution tolerant and maintenance free (and above all not be a tree that they're likely to be sued about in any form)
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tahir
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| cab wrote: | | can't hurt to have a go. |
Agree, do you want to post the text of your letter here?
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orangepippin
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It will be interesting to see how they respond. In one of our local woodlands the "council" have cut down what appears to be about 50% of the trees because they are the "wrong" type for the area (non-native, only arrived 100 years ago or something like that). This was strongly attacked in letters to the local paper, and equally strongly defended by the council. I think technically the council had a point, but they failed to apply common-sense and what used to be woodland in one of the locally unique Wolds dry valley habitats now looks like savannah. I think this "common sense test" may be what trips up your idea cab - but it is a good one.
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cab
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| tahir wrote: | | cab wrote: | | can't hurt to have a go. |
Agree, do you want to post the text of your letter here? |
Would merrily do so, but it was hand written while sitting on a train 
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Treacodactyl
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I suppose there's no harm in trying but I tend to find it's almost impossible to get councils to do what they legally should do.
I think getting private land owners to co-operate would be a better bet. There's quite a few people just on this site that have room and would be willing to plant a few extra fruit trees. I'm sure there's many people all over the country that would be glad to help, it's just organising such an idea that could be a bit tricky.
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tahir
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| Treacodactyl wrote: | | I tend to find it's almost impossible to get councils to do what they legally should do. |
On trees? Absolutely, due in part to poor policies but largely down to abysmal funding, I know a tree officer in Notts, I couldn't believe his paltry budget, worked out to less than a penny per tree if I remember rightly.
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cab
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Its a more promising picture here in Cambridge; the staff who do tree, shrub and bedding planting are really quite professional, and owing to a happy set of accidents (including the accidental removal of my own front garden last year by another City Council department and its subsequent replanting) pinned down who the best people there are.
Treacodactyl, I take your point about encouraging people to plant good local varieties on their own land too. I'd like to think I've done a wee bit there myself (not all of the fruit trees in the garden or down the plot, but some of them were chosen for that, as were our strawberries), but of course thats only a start... I wonder though, whether there might be a way to get allotment associations in on such a thing?
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Treacodactyl
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| tahir wrote: | | Treacodactyl wrote: | | I tend to find it's almost impossible to get councils to do what they legally should do. |
On trees? Absolutely, due in part to poor policies but largely down to abysmal funding, I know a tree officer in Notts, I couldn't believe his paltry budget, worked out to less than a penny per tree if I remember rightly. |
Not trees specifically, just things in general and which they do seem to have the funding for but are just extremely wasteful or incompetent or both!
In a previous house I did have a letter from the local council insisting I trimmed the trees at the end of my garden or they would take legal action against me. I replied pointing out the trees were on their land and their responsibility, which it was obvious to anyone who had actually looked at them. They didn't reply and the trees were never trimmed whilst I was there.
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orangepippin
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| cab wrote: | | (including the accidental removal of my own front garden last year by another City Council department and its subsequent replanting) |
How can a front garden be accidentally removed? Did you forget to pay your council tax?
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cab
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| orangepippin wrote: | | cab wrote: | | (including the accidental removal of my own front garden last year by another City Council department and its subsequent replanting) |
How can a front garden be accidentally removed? Did you forget to pay your council tax? |
Long story that I ranted about at great length at the time. One department in the council gave another one a map of where they wanted re-planted, which meant that a good number of mature laurel bushes (like upwards of 20 years old, 13 to 15 trees) were removed from my front garden, effectively leaving it barren, on the udnerstanding that ours was a council house... Now, had we actually been council tennants we'd have got the letter, but I belive this house was bought from the council by a previous resident some time around 1984, and it has been in private ownership ever since.
I didn't really like the laurel, but I was spitting nails, and I had witnesses to the crime (as luck would have it a bloke was installing central heating in the house at the time, and he'd talked with the chaps from the council to suggest that they ought to reconsider, but they had a map...)
So I came up with a planting plan for what I wanted in our little North facing, extremely shaded front garden, and it turns out that the guys actually doing this kind of work for the City Council are excelletn; they really know their business, as can be seen from what they achieve across the city. They don't always get it right, but thats mostly from having a willingness to try to be a bit different at times.
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Slim
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In Oslo there are apple trees everywhere. Many people didn't eat them when I lived there, but if you gathered your apples, or even just your drops (and ideally your neighbors) you could take them to a community cider business (is cidery a word?) where your apples would be weighed and you would receive a certain amount of free, or at least heavily discounted, cider per pound of apples you brought in. Not a bad setup, eh?
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Lorrainelovesplants
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I like that idea!
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