Ideally Tauranga's historic necklace poplar tree will be felled before the Easter Jazz Festival, says Tauranga City Council team manager city parks Steve Webb.
No date's been set yet, but a plan is in the process of being put together.
The ‘Aspen' tree is soon to be chopped down.
The paperwork is required because the dangerous tree is a heritage tree, and the legal requirements have to be satisfied.
Tauranga City Council decided on Monday the tree, estimated to be 146 years old, will be felled.
The historic Tauranga ‘Aspen' tree is being cut down before it falls down, an arborist's report on the health of the tree reveals.
The tree is in decline and in increasing danger of collapse, says independent arborist Paul Kenny.
He was called to check the tree's health after it dropped an eight tonne branch onto McLean Street on January 17.
The necklace poplar is rotting inside and the roots that hold it up are also failing.
Structural roots on the southern and western sides of the tree are 'in significant decline”.
The internal rot is so severe that in spite of the 30 tonnes of weight removed from the tree by Arbor Care the day after the branch fell, still more has to be cut to make the tree safe.
The trunk is hollow and too weak to support the current branch structure.
The remaining branches are also rotting inside. It is unsafe in its present state.
Paul's first recommendation is to completely remove the tree.
Otherwise the public access to the reserve will have to be restricted, and the height of the tree reduced to prevent it striking adjacent buildings should it fall.
Regular pruning and inspections will be required to monitor the risk of a structural failure, and further drastic prunings may still be required.
The third option is to severely cut back the branches to 2m and reduce the height to 17m. It will still require regular pruning and inspections to monitor regrowth and manage the risk.
The total cost of the branch failure, clean up, the ensuing cut back and independent assessment has cost $9817.64 plus GST.
1 comment
ROTTEN TO THE CORE
Posted on 22-03-2011 18:52 | By THE PELICAN BRIEF
THIS HAS A FIMILIAR RING TO IT WITHOUT DOUBT. IT IS ROTTING AT PACE FROM THE INSIDE OUT, THERE IS ONLY ONE OBVIOUS CONCLUSION TO MAKE AND THAT HAS BEEN 'IN YA FACE' LONG ENOUGH. CUTTING LIMBS OFF DOES NOT CHANGE THE FATE OF THE TREE, IT IS TERMINAL!!!
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