Wednesday 20 January 2010

It was grey and dull, with rain blowing into my face as i crossed Migrant alley on the way home from work this afternoon, as I reached home, the rain had turned to bits of ice, and I was glad to get indoors.

As the conditions outside were miserable, I gave my patch walk a rare miss this afternoon, and spent some time ringing around trying to find out about Tree Preservation Orders, I may be too late to save the oaks that were felled in a large garden along Ashes lane the other day, but i'm going to try and save all the other trees along our lane!

I rang the local council, firstly to inquire about the trees that had been felled, was it done illegally ? The answer was not as straight forward as that (is it ever) Anyone can cut down a tree on their property as long as it has not got a Tree Preservation Order on it, and as long as they give six weeks notice to the council.

I then enquired about how to put a TPO on to a tree, and how many trees can I preserve, at this point I was passed over to another person, who listened to me very patiently and then told me I needed to talk to the local TPO officer. Ok, put me onto them I said, only to be told she was out, and would give me a call back later, I am still waiting.........................

Quick scans of my garden feeders, in between phone calls, was quite productive, despite the next doors garden works going on. 17 species were seen coming and going to the feeders, the best of which was the BRAMBLING again, but there were also around 50 other mixed finch's, also around 20 BLUE and GREAT TITS, mostly Blue Tits, 8 HOUSE SPARROWS, 2 each of BLACKBIRD, ROBIN, DUNNOCK and STARLING, 4 COLLARED DOVES, with singles of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JACKDAW, WREN, WOOD PIGEON and COAL TIT.

I'll let you know if I get any further with saving the trees of ashes lane!

11 comments:

Nic Squirrell said...

Good for you!

Phil said...

You're doing sterling work there Warren. If all else fails though,a good way to stop them chopping a tree down is to climb up it..............:-)
Phil

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Good easy to understand info on Naturenet - but I guess you looked it up already.

Cheers

Dave
Good luck...bl**dy idiots

Greenie said...

Warren ,
As soon as I read that you had 'rung the local Council', I thought , you'll be lucky .
Last year I tried to get them involved with a resident who was topping Lleylandii , nothing wrong there , but in the middle of the bird nesting season , with Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves going ballistic , only to be told , it was private property and they could not do anything . At the front door , the wife said they were nature lovers and no birds were nesting , and at the back , the husband said he couldn't give a **** about the birds , all they do is **** over his £20,000 car .
Earlier in the year , I photographed a tipper truck , fly tipping in a car park on the Common , with a close up of the number plate . A year on , nothing has been done about it .
So what makes us think they would do anything about a few trees ?
I really feel like ' Grumpy of Pittswood' now .

Warren Baker said...

Thanks for the Naturenet info Dave, very informative.

Greenie,
I know i'm almost certainly onto a loosing battle with the tree's. I'm not rich, not famous, and I am not a friend or relative of a local councilor (or MP). Even If I get some of the tree's protected, it seems that there are ways to get round it! Just like all wildlife legislation, it's all totally toothless.

But I will try. :-)

Warren Baker said...

Hello Squirrel - not seen you comment on my blog before, thanks for the support

ShySongbird said...

Oh well done Warren! Keep trying, don't let them get away with pushing you from pillar to post too easily! Do let us know what happens.

Seventeen species sounds great to me and also good to still have the Brambling.

Chris said...

Hi Warren,
Gosh mate, you are getting a really long bad weather! Hope this is gonna clear up soon for you.... Here it is not really the same, it is only raining when I'm out of work ;-(

Monika said...

Good luck with the trees Warren! As others have said it may or may not amount to anything but it's certainly worth a shot - you know what will happen if you don't try at all! Hopefully you'll get some straight up answers soon. Keep us posted.

Anonymous said...

Typical council response that "oh, you need to speak to so & so".

Top marks for trying anyway.

Tricia Ryder said...

Well done you Warren - wish there were more like you!

Same happened in a service road where my daughter used to live. Developers wanted to get rid of mature oak trees and the residents, allegedly, managed to get a TPO up in 24 hours!! Don't know how they did it!

Fingers crossed for you.