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Messages are welcome on any subject relating to Troopers Hill Local Nature Reserve; the surrounding area of St George and Crews Hole or any of Bristol's Parks and Green Spaces.


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Viewing Page 1 of 1 (Total Posts: 11)


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Ian



May 1, 07 - 6:59 AM
TREE PRUNING

I noticed this morning that a number of trees have had branches removed some have not been cut properly that may well now lead to disease or death of the trees. I have looked at some information about tree pruning and attached it below.

Please let the hill have some rest - the wildlife must be wondering what's hit it with all the work going on. There are certainly fewer birds about. On Monday there were birds in all of the teees that have been cut it was a brilliant chorus - they were not there today! The Wrens have been displaced by the bramble and shrub clearance and now there's more chopping and cutting.

PRUNING..."The first decision to be made, when considering pruning, is whether cutting off and removing living branches will actually benefit the tree or shrub. Will the proposed pruning prolong its useful life expectancy within the context of the surrounding environment and land use. It is important to remember that pruning may do more harm than good, and in some situations may create more problems than it solves.
Every cut made has the potential to change the growth of the tree or shrub. Removing living foliage, by pruning, affects the trees physiology and future growth. The reduction in leaf area, that results from pruning, will reduce the tree’s overall photosynthetic capacity and may reduce overall growth on the pruned section, or on the entire tree. Remember that there are often less branches left for the tree to produce new shoots from, and severely pruned trees have a tendency to initiate the production and growth of warersprouts, as a response to the need for new foliage and increased photosynthetic capacity.
It is important that anyone, considering pruning work to a tree, has an understanding of the biology of trees and how they respond to pruning in order to optimise their health and structure. Plants are reactive, generating systems, which use basic mineral and organic resources to build new tissues. They do not have the capacity to heal or repair damaged areas, so where weak points occur due to injury, all they can do is re-enforce the site by growing, reactively, additional tissues and replace the losses.
Trees store energy reserves (starch, sugars, and oils) in branches, stems, trunk and roots. These energy reserves can be preserved by removing, the fewest number of living branches necessary to accomplish the desired objective. Excessive branch removal depletes these reserves and reduces the ability of the tree to photosynthesise and store more energy. It is also important to be aware that if the tree is forced to use vital energy reserves for growth, they will not be available for defence against plant pathogens or wood decay organisms.
There should be a good reason to remove more than a quarter, of a trees leaf area, in a single year. It is important to consider pruning over the entire life-span of the tree or trees involved and not as a one-off single operation. Many trees generate adventitious sprouts, in response to over-pruning, as they attempt to replace the stored energy..
It is essential when considering pruning a tree, of any age, that a thorough evaluation is done to determine the objectives to be achieved, when the work is complete. The decisions can then, be made as to where, how, when and how often to prune the specific tree or trees, to achieve these objectives. This evaluation process is, an essential, part of planning the management of any tree or tree population, and should be recorded in a tree management schedule".
Rob

BS5


May 1st, 2007 - 5:43 PM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Ian,

Can you let me know where on the hill this has been done - the only pruning that should be happening now is at path edges to reduce the need for cutting back later in the year. Bristol City Council have a very strict protocol to follow to ensure that they do not disturb nesting birds.
I agree that any pruning should be done properly, though it is not only the benefit to the tree that has to be considered, but the benefit to the site overall. If pruning has not been done properly then I shall let our Community parks Manager know and I shall get it put right.
We are hopeful that there will soon be a change in the way that the contractors carry out their work on the hill that will help ensure that the standards of this type of maintenance are improved.
Ian



May 1st, 2007 - 6:21 PM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Hi Rob

It is alongthepaths but some of it looks rather crude "hacked" rather than cut or strimmed in some places. Its along Troopers Hill Road and then through the quarry.
Rob

BS5


May 2nd, 2007 - 1:39 PM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Ian,

I've just had a lunchtime walk round the hill. While I agree that in a small area in the Gully a much neater job could have been done; it is nothing like the scale of problem that I imagined from your first posting. There are a few ends that need tidying up with loppers or a hand saw, that is all.
As you admit it is alongside the path. Keeping the scrub cut back from the paths is an important part of the management of the site (aim 7.2.10.2 in the Management Plan). People feel safer if they can see that no one is hiding round the corner behind shrubs.
You are obviously as passionate about protecting Troopers Hill as I am. I hope that over the next few years you will see that the work that has been done this spring and the commitment from Bristol Parks to the 5 year management plan has brought real longterm benefits.
Ian



May 3rd, 2007 - 7:50 AM
Re: TREE PRUNING

I'm not sure I agree with cutting back the trees and shrubs? As you rightly say, I do feel very protective about the hill and many, many years ago collected glass and tins off the hill. The tin and aluminium was sold and went to Air Balloon Playgroup funds to build their unit.
The hill has stood up very well over the 50 years I've known it. It has survived motorbikes, gang fights (60’s and 70’s), fires, large bon fires, bicycles, children sliding down the slopes on cardboard, large scale tipping and all manner of other things. It was certainly used more than it is now and had more variation in flora, fauna and animals. I remember giant moon daisies on the slopes, rabbits, kestrels nesting atop the chimney, frogs, toads and newts in the spring fed pond, grass snakes, slow worms, lizards, voles, large crickets (haven’t seen the Dark Bush cricket for many years) and large grasshoppers (not the small ones that are common now), all types of birds, foxes, badgers and deer. Up until all the undergrowth removal and “serious work” started taking place the deer were common. I used to see them every morning and could get quite close to them even with my dog - where have these gone?
Whatever we do, hopefully it will continue to regenerate in the way it wants to do the paths will hopefully erode away back to the tracks that have been used over the years. Vegetation will grow as it wants to do. What we don't want to happen, with all due respect, is trying to make it something it's not. The more it's artificially changed the less attractive it will become - like a well manicured garden or stately home all very nice, but keep off the grass, keep to the path's don’t touch or play with anything - where's the purpose in that. I know that isn’t the intention and that this is an extreme point of view but that’s what we could end up with. Something well manicured, areas fenced off, all weather footpaths and of no use to the wildlife.
If people are worried about someone hiding behind a bush then I think they will not be out walking anywhere – someone could be hiding behind a wheelie bin, a parked car or wall of a street corner. I walk the hill at all times of the day and night with my dog and have never felt threatened – you get the odd group of teenagers underage drinking, you get owners with ferocious dogs but you meet them everywhere. If people are worried about someone hiding behind a tree or bush then you might as well level the land fill in the quarry and the dips remove all the trees and shrubs and turn it into a meadow but keep the grass short. I’m sure that this is not what is intended but I’m worried that there is too much human intervention at the moment and that it is driving out the wildlife, particularly the birds and quite possibly the insects who use the undergrowth and trees as their refuge for breeding and eating.
Rob

BS5


May 3rd, 2007 - 3:54 PM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Ian,
I think we in agreement on 90% or more of the issues. I fully understand the way you feel about too much intervention, and I certainly do not want a well manicured park - Troopers Hill is a Nature Reserve and will always remain so.
The trees and shrubs that have been cut have grown up over the last 20 or so years and have been cleared in accordance with the recomendations people who know a lot more than me about the invertebrates and other hill wildlife. They are concerned that we will loose many of the species that live on the hill if the trend for heathland and grassland to disappear under shrubs and trees is not reversed.
Please keep letting us know what you think and please don't think that you are being ignored. Views expressed on this Forum, at our meetings and at our work parties are all fed back to Bristol Parks and we come to joint decisions which also take into account their responsibilities and obligations as land owners and as a Local Authority. I know for example that you don't like the new path, but it is narrower than was proposed at one time because of the concerns raised by you and others.
There are several issues that are going to be discussed over the coming months, including for example how to replace the gate and fence at the Greendown entrance and we want as many people as possible to be happy with what is done on their hill.
Liz

BS5


May 4th, 2007 - 12:20 AM
Re: TREE PRUNING

I have to say, having not come to meetings for a few months and not being in the swing of what's happening it does seem to me that a lot has been done all in one go recently and it does seem a bit "shocking" at times. All that lovely dogwood by the gate to the field for example. You wouldn't believe how many photos I've taken of that on my way back from work parties. On the good side, the Japanes knotwood has also (almost) gone.

But still, I'm confident it's all for the best & there are plenty of us who would shout out the moment it really does get out of hand.
I've only seen pictures of the hill from before the late 90's and some have looked pretty bleak. It was a different place altogether in 1953: http://www.troopers-hill.org.uk/history/1953views.htm
These days we seem to keep finding rare plants and animals, like the moss Nick showed us a while back: http://www.troopers-hill.org.uk/wildlife.htm

One thing I do know, Ian, the Hill is still home to grass snakes, lizards and small boys sliding on cardboard and long may it continue

Liz
Ian



May 4th, 2007 - 7:21 AM
Re: TREE PRUNING

I don't ever recall it being bleak - indeed it was always busy especially during school holidays when it never seemed to rain! As I said there was a lot of wildlife back then and a lot has disappeared. I would love to know when the lastt deer sighting was and the time of day. As I have said due to the hours that I work am I over the hill walking the dog at hours when there is really nobody else around and the deer sightings were common.
My last sighting of an animal that gave me great pleasure was about a month or so ago when I noticed a couple of heads silhouetted against the night sky bobbing up and down. It turned out to be two young foxes who were staying just ahead of me and the dog. They would stop every now and again and look back - obviously thought they couldn't be seen. Then they ran off play fighting as they went.
Liz



May 5th, 2007 - 1:29 AM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Lovely!

We've had foxes playing under the streetlamp nearest our house and often hear them in the night even if we don't see them. We've had badgers in the garden and just inside the gate to the field. I saw a deer once running across the field and into the woods. I was thinking today that I haven't seen any jays for a while, maybe 2 years. But I have seen a rare moss, clear-winged moths, mining bees, mouse-eared hawkweed and plenty more.

I was brought up in the country (Welsh border) in the 60s and 70s, on the outskirts of a tiny town and we saw much less wildlife there/then. Maybe a hedgehog or two and that's about it. Of course, that was just before people got interested in conservation and farmers were pouring chemicals all over the place. My mum's garden now has squirrels, Red Admirals, rabbits that it never had in say 1974.

Liz
Kite

BS5


May 5th, 2007 - 1:30 PM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Liz, 60s and 70s?.....never!
Liz



May 5th, 2007 - 11:55 PM
Re: TREE PRUNING

Kite, I'm not really all that much younger than you are, hard though it may be to believe!

ROTFLMAO!!


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