Comments on: Trees Just Large Weeds Made Out of Wood Says Councillor

By: David Vincent

David Vincent — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:08:59 +0000

One of the problems is that there is very little confidence that the ruling group are not in the business of eradicating trees (or rather allowing them to be eradicated under their noses) given the amount of destruction that has taken place recently. The actual work at Byron’s Pool was a lot more destructive in reality than the plan implied and even done in Byron’s name ( to produce “the romance and tranquillity that Lord Byron would have himself experienced” according to Ellis Selway - so what was native in B’s day should perhaps be relevant). Cllr Ward’s possible sense of humour and lessons from Cllr Upstone’s vegetable garden may not always be reliable safeguards.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:56:06 +0000

A rather odd news release was published by the City Council on the 25th of June. Under the headline of “Byron’s Pool Celebration” it mentions the ~80 native trees felled.

It also boasts of a new bridge: “providing an excellent vantage point across the famous pool”. The new bridge is in the same place as the old one though; it may well be fractionally more accessible if the paths become a bit smoother with time.

By: Neale Upstone

Neale Upstone — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:26:09 +0000

Thankfully, I think you’ll find that we’re not in the business of eradicating masses of imported species, and that Tim’s comments were in jest (he’s like that, it keeps people from falling asleep in the gallery). Having said that, I’m very much aware of the Sycamores dominating my own garden and the constant process of pulling up seedlings from my veg plot. With any luck some of the squirrels work will get to replace them. I wonder how many squirrel planted chestnuts there are growing in Paradise!

By: David Vincent

David Vincent — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:52:21 +0000

Sorry, missed that one. You’d think they’d perhaps restrict themselves to trees introduced after the lifetime of Byron. We’ll be getting rid of non-native vegetables next. No potatoes to be grown on Council allotments!

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:59:34 +0000

David,

I addressed that point in my article on the Byron’s Pool trees, there the city council said horse chestnuts and sycamores were non-native, even though they’ve both been in the country for centuries, and could reasonably be considered naturalised.

By: David Vincent

David Vincent — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:38:48 +0000

How far back are we going to define what is a “native species”? Are we getting rid of the horse chestnut for instance?

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:21:58 +0000

Thanks Gareth,

You’ve just prompted me to look up the history.

Lammas Land relates to Lammas Day, the first of August and the traditional harvest festival day, it’s nothing to do with Tibetan monks or South American ruminants. Many areas of green around the town were designated lammas lands in law, that is they were common lands for 9 months of the year, but for the sole use of their owners for the remainder (Lammas Day being the day they changed ownership).

Source - Chris Hadley

I’ll correct the error in the article!

By: Gareth Rees

Gareth Rees — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:50:43 +0000

“Llamas Land” is a great typo. I will endeavour to use it myself.

By: John Ionides

John Ionides — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:15:22 +0000

Thanks for the heads up on this. There is indeed a narrow line between good husbandry and the sterilisation of wild areas. It increasingly looks as though the City Council is straying over that boundary.