Simple solution could save tree Aussie council claims is 'serious risk to public'
An Australian council has slapped a notice on a towering gum tree, informing residents of its intention to cut it down. Like other local governments around the country, Sydney's Inner West Council intends to plant replacement trees when the yellow bloodwood is gone, but a leading planning expert warns this seemingly sensible solution often contains one key flaw.
"Sadly, it takes decades for trees to grow big enough to provide habitat," Professor Sarah Bekessy said.
Bekessy is a professor of sustainability and urban planning at RMIT and a lead councillor at the Biodiversity Council, and she's been working with colleagues to find "clever ways" of maintaining old trees in urban environments.
The problem of managing large trees in suburban areas is confounding councils around Australia, and often the simplest solution is to get a quote from an arborist and chop it down. But as Waverley and Randwick councils in Sydney's east recently discovered, chopping down beloved street trees often infuriates the residents they're charged with servicing.
The tree the Inner West Council wants to cut down is located in Leichhardt on a street dominated by mid-story natives, making the large eucalypt an anomaly. Photos indicate it is surrounded by a footpath and road with no shrubs or grasses underneath, meaning locals are likely to walk underneath it.
Social media has been running hot with debate about the Leichhardt tree. One said the eucalypt was simply "existing" and the plan to cut it down was "nonsense". Other residents agreed with council, with one declaring it looked "way too big for the street and pavement".
"If a qualified arborist said it's unsafe and then council ignored this advice, then there'd be some explaining to do," another added.
The notice on the tree indicates the decision was made because it's damaging infrastructure and dropping limbs. When Yahoo News asked for more information, council responded with a short statement explaining it was a danger to the public.
"This tree is being removed due to safety concerns. Between 2019 and 2024, the tree has dropped three limbs and poses a serious risk to the public," it said. "To balance the need to uphold safety and increasing the canopy, the Inner West continues to plant more than 1,000 trees each year."
While Bekessy doesn't want to dismiss the danger the tree could pose, she notes in many situations there are simple, low-cost solutions to keeping the public and vehicles out of harm's way.
"No one wants to be bumped on the head by a branch, but one of the things that we've been doing with councils is planting out underneath trees," she said.
"A prickly mid-story of plants happens to be absolutely fabulous habitat for birds and insects. But it also makes it very unlikely that someone's going to want to sit there or park a car there."
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A similar solution was suggested after US-tech company Honeywell said it needed to cut down a 400-year-old tree because of the danger it posed to people walking to the building recently constructed next door. It ultimately found a way to save the tree.
Whether Inner West Council explored this option remains a mystery, as it did not respond directly to questions from Yahoo about this matter. And it's possible local authorities have no choice but to remove the tree.
It's also unclear whether it has investigated what sorts of wildlife will lose their habitat when it is felled, or what species of replacement trees will take its place.
Speaking generally about mature trees, Bekessy said they "punch above their weight" when it comes to providing health and wellbeing benefits to residents.
"It's time we started seeing green infrastructure as legitimate infrastructure. Sometimes it needs to be managed so it's not damaging other infrastructure, but we can't trade them off each other. We need to work out better designs to enable both to exist," she said.
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