The trouble with trees

WHILST it's not for me to argue with a Coroner (narrowboatworld—BW misleading the coroner) I do confess to some sympathy for British Waterways, writes Pam Pickett.

It is of course tragic that a lady boater lost her life when a tree fell onto her boat, and I extend my deepest sympathies to her family. The problem with trees however is that they don't always give warning they are about to come down.

Database

We should be pleased though that the Coroner referred to the necessity for the provision of a database of all organisations that manage trees to enable any of us to report any concern with regard to any thought to be dangerous.

Given the sheer number of organisations involved with the trees bordering our rivers and canals, I doubt though that we can expect this database any time soon. The problem here is of course that for all of those that view a tree as being dangerous, there will be others of strong voice that do not.

Prime example

The beautiful Horse Chestnut tree at Derwent Mouth Lock that boss man Thomas has long thought should be removed, whilst I've argued it should stay, could be a prime example of this. Although I've grudgingly had to come to the conclusion this tree probably is causing damage to the lock, and could cause carnage in more ways than one should it fall, the decision as to whether it should stay, or go, has probably been taken out of our hands by the blight sadly affecting our Horse Chestnut trees.

However, when a tree thought to be unsafe by some boaters although thought to be safe by the Woodland Trust fell, severely damaging a cruiser moored at Great Haywood, the owners of the cruiser could not have had any conception of the battle they were to have to have the repairs carried out, or that they were to be effectively off the water for nearly two years.

They felt that had the tree been managed by British Waterways, and not by the Woodland Trust, (had the incident still occurred) the necessary repairs would have been dealt with swiftly; certainly without the delays they then found themselves subject to.

Not to be confused with justice

Reality time, given the extremes of weather over the last few seasons when we've gone from flooding to snow and ice followed by drought conditions, Mother Nature has indeed played havoc with many of our trees. As I see it no amount of management by either British Waterways, or indeed any other organisation tasked with the management of our trees can be totally effective in preventing a tree from falling.

The only sure way to prevent such occurrence would be to remove each and every tree from our watersides whereupon they would be quickly substituted by faster growing considerably less attractive species. Furthermore we may then be looking at considerably more soil erosion, trees fulfilling more roles than beauty and shade. Such loss of our trees is something I sincerely hope none would wish to see.

Falling trees are I think one of those risks in life we have little choice other than to accept. If a tree chose to fall on a British Waterways van this is to my mind very bad luck, and is in my book at least in no way to be confused with justice!