The designer tree craze.

[animartco]

Save the trees! If there are no trees there will be no nightingales. (Though actually they nest very close to the ground. But under trees.) Do you think that people are forgetting how long it takes a tree to grow? So many people now are saying its OK to cut down a tree so long as you plant another in its place. So they cut down all the old fashioned oaks and beeches and plant... limes and maples seem to be the IN fashion accessories of the moment. Or perhaps just an apple. "It's a tree isn't it?" I have no objection to ANY tree being planted (apart from ash which is inimical to wildlife, and sycamore which makes an awful mess in a garden) but the point is that it takes at least thirty years for ANY tree to replace the one that was cut down, more like 100 years in the case of a mature oak and if a smaller tree is put in instead, it is never replaced. Moreover planting One replacement tree is not enough since there is a lot of mortality of young trees. A lot of trees fell down in the wind this year, and I lost three, but the felling of fallen trees seems to have started a fad for felling the lot! "Oh while you are taking this one, that one keeps dropping leaves all over my car. Can you take that down as well?" sort of thing. I am hearing a chain saw practically constantly, and the skyline is more denuded every day.