We often hear that the cost to cut trees is skyrocketing, but how much money is lost when we cut our own trees? How much is spent on crowning and other projects? What about all the hazardous waste left after cutting down the tree? There are many ways that people are willing to do their bit to save our precious resources, but the question is whether they are doing the right thing.
In Victoria, Australia there has been a push for tree removal services. The problem is that the felling trees are not a cost effective way of saving the environment. The state government gives us free space in our National Parks for felling trees, but they will only cut them down if they are overgrown. In the meantime, our wildlife suffers. When the tree removal service cuts down a tree, they get all the wood and make a mess. They then haul it away and leave it there, causing pollution and destroying our natural woodland.
A similar problem arises with summer cottages. Summer cottages are designed to be self catering and have attached garaging or self-contained facilities, such as heaters and sinks, which would allow us to plant a lush garden of vegetables and flowers. But, when we remove the mature trees from our cottages and hand them over to tree removal companies, we are simply removing unproductive trees. These cottages and summer homes will not be able to sustain themselves, and losing the greenery is unfair to the environment.
A further example is our National Park. Every year, we lose 9.9 billion litres of water because of improper felling and cleaning. This is equivalent to taking nine million baths a year! So, if we are going to maintain the beauty of our parks and our natural woodland, why are we removing trees, instead of planting more?
Cost to cut trees is often quoted as the number one environmental problem in Britain, but the true scale is closer to three or four times higher. Thriving fruit trees for the sole purpose of timber production can deplete our hardwood resources in just two years, whilst felling mature trees will have a knock-on effect, causing increased biodiversity and soil erosion. It seems that if we don't face the issues, we could soon find ourselves at the other end of the Dingle Peninsula, looking at our beautiful landscape design with barren, browned root-logs, looking at no-hop gardens and no-plants, and wondering why we chose this particular approach in the first place. Rather than accept the fact that trees may not always be our friends, perhaps it's time we took a step back, refreshed by some realistic alternative landscape design ideas and landscape architecture.