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What is a Tree Despite their immeasurable value to us and the planet we inhabit, the majority of professionals simply don’t understand the most basic things about trees. And it’s having disastrous consequences on our landscape. In the first of a series of features Terry O’Regan gets to the root of the problem
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oes this simple question offend you? If you ever aspire to be a fiction writer you will learn the importance of the first line of a novel – you must draw in your reader. I am practicing. Do I have your attention or are you about to move on to the next page muttering, “He’s a right eejit asking a question like that; sure everyone knows the answer to that stupid question!” Ask a child to draw a tree and a beautiful picture will take shape – trunk, branches, leaves, possibly flowers, and there’s always a bird in a nest. That is only half the story. Maybe the teacher doesn’t know what a tree is? Ask Google and it might direct you to The Royal Scottish Forestry Society website, which will tell you, “A tree is a large, perennial plant with a single woody stem which is hard and strong. This allows a tree to grow tall or very tall, to stay upright without flopping over, and to withstand wind and other pressures. Plants are built basically of cellulose, but lignin in trees is what makes wood hard. Tannins and resins in wood give each species a distinctive colour and odour.”
THAT TOO IS ONLY HALF THE STORY I put my pen to paper on this topic on the eve of National Tree Week 2018, but that was not my inspiration. The inspiration came from recent consultancy commissions to do with challenging in-fill planning applications with existing mature
trees on site or nearby. More specifically, the inspiration relates to the question of how existing trees are understood in the development and planning process. Now, I am not an Architect, so I would not design a house, I am not an engineer so I would not design a bridge and I am not a planner so I would not adjudicate on all aspects of a planning application. However, I am a qualified, experienced landscape horticulturist, so I do know what a tree is and I have learned over the years to respect the skills of other professions and to understand the implications that Architects’ and engineers’ design and planner decisions have for trees. In relation to both planning and legal matters, I have had cause to refer to the legal status of trees and the law surrounding matters sylvan, and as most of you know it is a blundering disgrace like so much else legislation in this incompetent state. The only sane legislation available has been the case law derived from common law that we share with the UK as it predates the foundation of the Republic. (This may have been repealed under a process initiated by the state in September 2014, but I doubt we could ever be that legislatively efficient.) The only bit of law we have added is the tree felling licence requirement, a ponderous outmoded piece of big brother feudal control. But I have to admit that my spirits did rise somewhat when BS 5837:2012 Trees in relation to design, demolition and construction – Recommendations was published. It is not a perfect document by any means and I would argue with some
Spring 2018 / www.horticultureconnected.ie /
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