Why is London waging a war on trees?

April 27, 2015 8:08 AM

When we moved here from New York last Spring we noticed the plane trees along our new street in London had been pruned back to only the largest limbs. It wasn't until late summer that any significant foliage sprouted back. Now the city has done it again and I'd like to know why they do such heavy-handed pruning seemingly every year. There are so few large trees in much of London to begin with... why would you want to limit the lovely leafiness to only a couple months of the year?

I can't help thinking of all the big mature plane trees on my old street in Brooklyn (and in other cities that have similar space constraints) that receive a bit of light pruning only every few years. I understand there may be a desire to limit a tree's height or breadth, and I know that some parts of the world are going for a particular manicured look, but it's just such a dismal sight for most of the summer here.

Sort of related question: Neighbors are demanding that our landlord remove a big beautiful horse chestnut tree from our back garden. They claim it's causing subsidence, but it's at least 50 feet away from their house. Are there any less drastic options that we can request?

posted by theory to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

I noticed this when I moved to the UK, and I have seen it in Japan as well.

Pollarding

Pollarding is a pruning system in which the upper branches of a tree are removed, promoting a dense head of foliage and branches. It has been common in Europe since medieval times and is practised today in urban areas worldwide, primarily to maintain trees at a predetermined height.
posted by sagwalla at 8:11 AM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Other Londoners are unhappy about this:

Pollarding has long been used by councils to control the growth of trees in city streets. It is vital to prevent them out-growing the space they were planted in, and to prevent damage to housing and telephone wires. But rather than pollarding in the winter – the best time for the health of the trees and wildlife – in recent years some councils have started their process of slash and burn in the spring.

And we are not talking about removing a few branches. The men working in my street this week were denuding the trees of all their foliage. The limes went from being glorious, shady green giants to ugly stumps. This seems an extraordinary thing to do when we are being urged to cut carbon emissions.

Basically it's all about cost. Local councils are under pressure to reduce their budgets. Instead of pruning street trees regularly, it's cheaper to leave them untouched for a year or two and then cut them back really savagely.
posted by verstegan at 9:18 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

The scale of pollarding in the UK is actually nothing compared to what is done in France. There it is quite rare for any city trees (and many of their rural cousins) to escape close pruning. Whilst there are technical reasons that are cited for pollarding (reducing the risks of fallen branches, preventing light from being blocked, concentrating summer shade in a designed area, historical links to wood harvesting and so on) my feeling is that it is largely an aesthetic and cultural decision. Pollarded trees have been shown who is boss and they have been made to conform to the will of the city governers who are a little wary of plants that are large unruly and wild. Some people also like the sculpted look.
posted by rongorongo at 10:18 AM on April 27, 2015

This has happened all over the area I live in, so it's more than just a London thing. It's definitely on the increase in the UK. I've seen an enormous horse-chestnut with the entire top half missing - it looks like a bowl on a stick now. And most of the limes around here are just trunks with a few limb-stumps perched on top. Few of them have any new growth or leaves yet.

I've been told that it's supposed to be a method of last resort, because it (a) destroys the aesthetics of the tree, and (b) results in new branches that are often weaker and more prone to falling in high winds. Pollarding is not intended as a substitute for annual maintenance, but that's what it's used for.

It's a symptom of underfunded councils who simply don't have the money to look after their streets properly. Personally, I'd rather see the trees cut down and replaced with younger ones if they're too big to manage.
posted by pipeski at 10:19 AM on April 27, 2015

I think your second question gets to the heart of the first.

People complain to the City about trees. They complain about things the trees drop on the sidewalk and private property. And if the roots start to creep into the sewers or foundations of adjacent property, or a limb fails and damages something, then people ask that the trees be removed. There's some risk to the City associated with a City tree damaging private property or injuring someone. So depending on budget priorities, the City might have had to find a way to minimize those risks and perhaps chose heavy biennial pruning as one way.
posted by Hoopo at 10:32 AM on April 27, 2015

Best answer: An answer of sorts from France in the 1800s, which meshes nicely with the answers above about council budgets:

...what I should be inclined to condemn in the Cours de la Fidelite is the barbarous manner in which the authorities keep these sturdy plane trees trimmed and pollarded. Instead of suggesting, with their low, rounded, flattened heads, the commonest of kitchen garden vegetables, they would like nothing better than to assume those magnificent forms which one sees them wear in England. But the Mayor’s will is despotic, and twice a year every tree belonging to the commune is pitilessly lopped. The Liberals of the place maintain, but they exaggerate, that the hand of the official gardener has grown much more severe since the Reverend Vicar Maslon formed the habit of appropriating the clippings.

This young cleric... actually ventured one day to complain to him of the periodical mutilation of these fine trees.

‘I like shade,’ replied M. de Renal with the touch of arrogance appropriate when one is addressing a surgeon, a Member of the Legion of Honour; ‘I like shade, I have my trees cut so as to give shade, and I do not consider that a tree is made for any other purpose, unless, like the useful walnut, it yields a return.’

There you have the great phrase that decides everything at Verrieres: YIELD A RETURN; it by itself represents the habitual thought of more than three fourths of the inhabitants.

Yielding a return is the consideration that settles everything in this little town...

posted by clawsoon at 11:46 AM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]

Also, London clay is one of the worst materials around for subsidence, being prone to particularly large shrink/swell changes. This guide to subsidence says that the Association of British Insurance recommends that a 20 m tall horse chestnut should be 23 m away from buildings. If the neighbours say the tree is causing subsidence, I think your landlord's insurance may insist on cutting the tree down.
posted by Azara at 12:13 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't know the answer, but Peggy Seeger recorded a song about it.
posted by rubah at 4:19 PM on May 9, 2015