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A Tree Warden's Life

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 14:13:22 GMT

Reflecting on Chi TWs' activities since June 2021 ...

Volunteer Tree Wardens’ activities can be summarised under the following headings:

Promote )
Protect ) trees (of the right type for their place).
Plant )

Chichester Tree Wardens routinely liaise with residents and others to this end. Outreach is through the networks of individual Tree Wardens and is strongest in the areas of the city that we know best. The following includes some highlights from the past few months and some of what is coming up, originally intended to inform a verbal report to a meeting of the Community Affairs Working Group of Chichester City Council (our parish Council) held on Zoom on Monday 17th January 2022.

Promote

The Chichester City Tree Trail now has a second revised online edition published in July 2021. This was updated by TW Brian Hopkins and can be downloaded as a pdf in booklet form or the text read with photographs on our website . There is no funding for a print edition.

Chichester Tree Wardens had a very successful stand at the Eco Festival on Saturday 6th November with constant interest and conversations throughout the afternoon.

Around 1,000 people view our Facebook group , Trees in Chichester , every month.

Articles are scheduled to appear in The Chichester Society’s newslette r in March and June 2022. The first focuses on the history of trees in Chichester; the second will look at current benefits and future opportunities for trees. (Past issues of the Society's newsletter are available to read as pdf files on its website .)

We hope once again to offer an event as part of the Festival of Chichester , and are also exploring taking a stand at West’s Wood Fair in East Dean (18th/19th June). We continue to be represented on the occasional Green Hub stall at Chichester Farmer’s Market (organised by Eco Chi and Lavant WI, part of the West Sussex Federation of Women’s Institutes ).

Protect

Long-standing concerns for trees on Kingsham Road at the old High School site were brought to a head by the arrival on site of Portsmouth Demolition on Monday 20th September 2021. Working with others, we successfully persuaded Chichester District Council to protect them through issuing a Tree Preservation Order. Although the trees were unlikely to be felled, there was a high risk of root damage leading to future failure.

TW Geoff King continues to make Tree Application recommendations to the Chichester Conservation Area Advisory Committee and The Chichester Society and was involved in both CCAAC’s and Whyke Residents’ Association’s contributions to the Chichester Neighbourhood Plan process.

TW Lynne Friel has been in contact with Lidl resulting in replanting of some of the around 40 dead trees on its “new” superstore site and intends to follow up if the rest aren’t replaced shortly.

Volunteers have been recruited to help St Joseph’s School maintain the trees it planted on the school field 2020/21. A self-sown sweet chestnut tree has been saved from the hedge trimmers at Bishop Luffa School with the School’s blessing. (Whether its future can be secured through the grounds maintenance contract has yet to be established.)

We kept in touch with around 70 people who volunteered to water the new highway trees planted in November 2020, including producing leaflets explaining when and how to water and how this fits in with West Sussex County Council’s young tree maintenance programme.

Plant

It is currently tree planting season (October/November to February/March).

TW Ray Carter has worked with Summersdale Residents’ Association and Chichester District Council to plant 20 whips supplied through CDC’s free trees scheme on CDC land at each of Highland Road/The Broadway green space; Fordwater Road/Ferndale Road green space; Ferndale Road/Maplehurst Drive green space; and Croft Mead (adjacent to Summersdale Copse).

TW Mary Turner has also worked with CDC in its partner role with DEFRA and as landowner of East Broyle green, where a “Miyawaki” mini-forest is to be planted towards the south-west corner (near St Paul’s Road) as part of the DEFRA project, and separately another area of trees with fruit for wildlife, and 100 whips to thicken up the woodland buffer to St Paul’s Road.

Fundraising for highway trees in Parklands and Orchard Avenue enabled 6 and 4 trees respectively to be ordered from West Sussex County Council in July. Donations from local residents amounted to £2,000, including £470 proceeds from Parklands Residents’ Association ’s Open Gardens event in June 2021. The trees were planted in December.

Looking forward, Geoff King has liaised with CCAAC and the Chichester Society regarding the Queen’s Green Canopy and is awaiting CDC feedback on where it may be possible to plant, including The Bishop's Palace Garden, Florence Park and New Park Road.

Following discussion with Chichester District Council, provision of a tree nursery plot was included in the planning permission for allotments at Whitehouse Farm. The approved Allotment Scheme for application reference 20/03167/REM confirms that:
"The proposals include one plot in the NE corner (as shown on the plans and labelled as ‘this 209 sqm plot to also be offered as community orchard’) to be an allotment plot that can be offered as a community orchard for the planting of fruit trees for use by the community or alternatively as a community tree nursery, to provide space for the community to grow trees."

IF SPACE CAN BE FOUND FOR ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY ORCHARDS, CDC still has funding for this 2021/22 financial year. Contact its Tree Project Officer at t reescheme@chichester.gov.uk or call 01243 521161 .

Volunteer News

Volunteer Tree Wardens Isla Duncan and Meg Owen have resigned after many years. We will miss their knowledge and support. Meg has secured a successor, also based in Summersdale, so Laura Eccott will be joining the team.

The Tree Council published a suite of new Tree Warden training materials in Autumn 2021, suitable both for bringing new volunteers up to speed and refreshing existing TW's knowledge. We expect to participate in this training in the coming months.

Every Day is Fungus Day!

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 11:54:49 GMT

but let's celebrate UK Fungus Day (on Saturday 2nd October 2021)

Whilst trying to find inspiration for an easy activity for Chichester Tree Wardens to run (I'm probably too late, unless anyone simply wants a walk and to keep fingers crossed for fungi and finding out about them together), I stumbled across this comic strip explaining how we rely on fungi in our everyday lives.

"It is worth reflecting that "Over 80% of land plants rely on mycorrhizal fungi to obtain nutrients and water. Mycorrhizal fungi are a critically important component of the microbial community that determines how plants interact with the soil and with other plants. Because of this important role of mycorrhizae, anything that changes the mycorrhizal fungus community can also change the plants that grow there." ( Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre, in studing the effect of earthworms ).

At an Arboricultural Association webinar earlier this year, fungi experts stressed how important it is NOT to use miccorrhizal products, as we simply do not know what fungi is in them and, just like other species, there is a risk of introducing invasive (and invisible below ground) fungi which outcompete members of the existing fungal community and consequently affect whether or not species which rely on them thrive. Find the recording of that 31st March 2021, Fungi Symposium, Session 3 (for now for free) on the Arb Assoc's YouTube channel along with the whole of the associated Fungi Symposium (as pay on demand) and listen to the experts Anne Pringle , Jenni Nordén and Lynne Boddy , explain.

Paula Chatfield, volunteer Chichester Tree Warden), 28th September 2021

Photo taken Thursday 1st April 2021 (Paula Chatfield). Fallen wood at Hook Dyke, Whitehouse Farm.

Plant Health Week 21st - 27th September 2020

183:839388612 (Paula Chatfield) — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:16:00 GMT

part of the International Year of Plant Health 2020

Today is the first day of National Plant Health Week!

Throughout the week The Tree Council will be sharing top tips, resources, and information on how you can help keep our trees healthy and protect biodiversity.

A broken avenue - the "cathedral" limes on West Street

Wed, 19 Aug 2020 15:57:20 GMT

Today I looked at the cathedral limes with new eyes, and realised what we have lost.

In my mind's eye, these trees (TT1 in the Chichester City Tree Trail) are an avenue; they were planted in Victorian times and are a constant feature of old postcards, a green backdrop to the Cross.

According to the wonderful book, Chichester in the 1950s by Edward Brown, we know that:
" Axes were taken to the 80-year-old Cathedral lime trees in December 1951 " ... "I n the Conservation nineties it seems sacrilegious, but the Cathedral and City authorities wanted to fell trees in order to provide an open space, enhancing views of the Cathedral.
" Controversy raged and a protest petition, organised by Parklands music teacher Yvonne Godfrey was signed by 11,000 people countrywide. Happily, a compromise was reached and nine of the 16 trees were spared after consultations with the architect J.L. Denman. "

I arrived in Chichester in 2003 and, at some point after that, one of the remaining lime trees was felled, and then there were 8. The tree pit was tiled over and, for a while, there was a statue there on a temporary plinth. More recently, as the tiles broke, the "tree" pit was covered with concrete. In late July 2017, another 2 went (necessary due to fungal decay), and then there were 6. These remaining 6 are protected by a Tree Preservation Order (15/00269/TPO; source http://www.chichester.gov.uk/treepreservation ).

But it was not until today, when I went to take a photo of TT1 specifically for this website, that I was shocked to realise that the loss of the three individual trees has "broken" the avenue - our cathedral no longer has a row of trees befitting its stature and status and, unlike at Winchester ( https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/lime-tree-conservation/ ) new trees have not been planted to replace what we have lost.

So, for now, when you visit, please imagine the foresight of the Victorians who sought to enhance the most important landmark building in our city by planting trees to match. In our current tree- (and climate/carbon-) conscious times, perhaps large trees can return to fill the gaps and we can celebrate, in time, the restoration of the avenue.

Paula Chatfield
(volunteer Chichester Tree Warden)
19th August 2020

More photos on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pg/ChiTWs/photos/?tab=album&album_id=957522544379592 .