The city council has decided to start "pollarding" the mature hornbeam trees on the street where I live (Dublin, Ireland). In my non-expert opinion, not only does it look horrendous, but these trees are far too old and big to be pollarded for the first time and to this extent. The city council has stated that they will do maintenance on the new "pollards" every 5 years. To me, this seems more like a case of tree topping than pollarding.
I was able to save the tree directly outside my house, with only minor trimming of the lower branches overhanging the road. This tree is by far the largest, but they were going to cut it to the same height as the others, leaving only 4-5 thick branches. The council says the trees are getting too large and top-heavy, and that this "pollarding" will extend their lifespan and structural integrity, but surely this is not the way to do that.
Am I overreacting, or were these trees just butchered? Looking for some expert advice on this, as I’m planning to contact my local councillor, especially since it looks like many more trees in Dublin may face the same fate. Thanks!
by tree-hugger-9
9 Comments
Not sure, but they look depressing
It’s either this or removal name your pick
Mature trees that are pollarded rarely, if ever, react as well as trees in their adolescence. It takes a mature tree exponentially more energy than a young tree to push shoots back out, regrow, re-cork, and re-stabilize the ostensible wounds.
In this case specifically, hornbeams are pollarded when young to purposefully give them a twisted, gnarled, dense growth structure that some folks find pleasing. This hornbeam is not pollarded correctly, as some of the secondary cuts were not pruned back to a leader, and some leaders were not pruned back to a growth node, near as I can tell. This is closer to butchery than pollarding.
As bad as it looks, I think they have a point. There is nowhere for the roots to grow, so these trees likely have very little root structure to support themselves. Pollarding is just a quick fix to extend the life of these trees. They won’t live a long happy life either way.
I’ve worked both belfast and council for utilities and council work and this is the done thing unfortunately. Smaller towns and villages in the north are normally maintained through proper pruning practice but the sheer volume of people/traffic and parked cars in the cities make tree work a nightmare. If they can get these done they don’t even need to look at them again for 5 years, if they let them grow too big they’ll need maintained and monitored to stop every ambulance chaser claiming if a branch sheds.
That illustration is misleading. It illustrates topping, not pollarding.
Pessimist in me says Council farming contracts to “friends” on the premise that someone’s had an insurance claim on subsidence and t*hey have to do it.*
They sell the wood chip after – *Sweet merry-go-round.*
Given the setting, this is a totally reasonable course of action
Hat have you saved? It’s been reduced before. Would be very difficult for any climber to get around that canopy to cut beyond old cuts and clear all arisings. Not impossible but not realistic without adding more equipment and possible lane closure that it could introduce. In my professional opinion they’ve done your street a good job. You sound insufferable mate.