Moan, Moan, Moan - 2011

[rob krejzl]

Lesley,

Last week Calochortus tiburonensis got 'weeded' by someone, for the second year running, - two days after I'd pointed it out as something very precious to me. Such is life.

[Anthony Darby]

Never mind Lesley, I've got some seed to send to you.

[Maren]

Hello Rob,

means you just have to do the weeding yourself.

[jandals]

A further note on wheelie bins ... and also illustrating just what a sad unit I am . Here are two wheelie bin pictures ( Yes , I know ) taken in my travels .
Everything is bigger in America , including this wheelie bin seen on the side of the road in Utah



and here in nuclear-free New Zealand I get good mileage out of this picture taken in Arco , Idaho , the first city to have atomic powered electricity



"Now don't forget , dear . Rubbish in the green bin , recycleables in the yellow one and radioactive waste in the blue bin"

[johnw]

"Well there was no label in it." I'll kill him!

Well then you had better get a dog bigger than the last one you hired.

johnw

[annew]

This isn't just any old moan - I've got steam coming out of my ears!
Some of you may remember me asking for info on germinating acorns from New Zealand, which came from progeny of a famous very old oak tree in a neighbouring village, the Cowthorpe Oak, once said to be the oldest oak in England (now dead and gone alas). In Cowthorpe today, along Oak Road is a group of beautiful oaks, about 350-400 years old, also thought to be seedlings of the original.
We were away last week, and came back yesterday. Today a friend rang to tell me that last Monday the oaks were cut down. I can hardly bear to type the words. It was a reputable (not much longer) tree surgeon business that did the deed, and traffic lights were installed, so presumably the highways dept knew. I just can't believe it. We will be out to see the damage tomorrow, and there will be Hell To Pay. 

[David Nicholson]

Go for it Anne. Were they not protected by a tree preservation order?

[Gerry Webster]

Give them hell Anne. On the face of it, sheer vandalism

[mark smyth]

When it comes to TPOs local councils can do what they want. In my local park that dates back to the 1600s the local council cut down 300 trees "for safety reasons". Anything with a bend, over hanging branch, not straight, bit of rot .... got the chop. All part of a multimillion Heritage Lottery Grant

The canal ponds used to be stunning with white and yellow water lilies. Someone told them water lilies would have been about in the 1600s so they removed them. I heard they might be being replaced.

The canal ponds were lined with clay. 300 hundred years on they are leaking so they were going to line them with butyl pond liner until someone with their head screwed on stepped in. I did suggest puddling with sheep

[annew]

We wept.

[annew]

Here the happy chaps of Bartletts (http://www.bartlett.com/index.cfm) in action.
What the tree should look like. (tilly hat on trunk for scale is 30cm diam).

[annew]

How to kill a giant.

[annew]

How to do it- wait until most people are at work.
Close the road so nobody gets near.
Go straight for the trunk, don't remove any branches first.
That way, nobody discovers what is happening until too late.

[annew]

Three trees down before anyone can do anything, then a temporary TPO obtained to save the rest. He was intending taking them all out.
Bats were seen to fly out of the big one as it fell. Yes, Mark, I know.
Proceedings begun.
And no, to our shame there wasn't a TPO because nobody  contemplated that the farmer could do such a thing. The council had already given assurances that if the road needed to be widened the would do it at the other side.

[Peter Maguire]

I can't understand why this vandalism was done - I assume the tree surgeons won't be getting any more local business.

Would there be a case against the farmer/tree surgeons if bats were present, they may perhaps have had to do an environemental impact assessment? (Not that this helped on a local site here where the local council bulldozed scrubland on an old mining area they did an environmental impact assessment for three species: no badgers, they wouldn't have been able to dig in the ground; no newts, no pond/watercourse, no otters, ditto. so they went and levelled the site and 2-3000 dactylorhizas disappeared).