20.9.98                                                                   

Copy to:   Chair Leisure & Cultural Services Cttee                                                                                                                   

Chair Sport & Parks Cttee                                                                                                                                      

Trevor Tween                                                                                                                                                         

Manton Area Riverside Management Assoc

 

 

Barry Timms                                         

Luton Parks Department                                                                                                     Steve Hawkins

Wardown Park Offices                                                                                                        Luton FoE

Wardown Park                                                                                                                      60 Peartree Road

Luton                                                                                                                                     Stopsley

                                                                                                                                                Luton  LU2 8BA

 

                                                                                                                                                01582 424068

 

Dear Mr Timms,

 

                                I hope that you will allow Luton FoE to enter into your consultation with residents over the future of the hedgerows along New Bedford Road.  Considering our long and continuing association with Luton’s Environment Forum and Agenda 21 groups, we were surprised to have had to learn about the proposal to fell them through a small article in the press.

 

After reading that article I had to respond rapidly with a follow up letter to the Luton News, a copy of which is appended to this letter.  At the time of writing I had not had the opportunity for a close look at the hedgerow in question and was speaking largely from memory.  I have since been pleasantly surprised to find that some of the measures I had suggested for improvement have already been implemented.

 

I was very pleased to find that the strimming of the base of the hedgerow has been stopped and that a good range of wild plants is already springing up.  Even at this late season the ground flora is noticeably ‘wildlife friendly’ with plants such as Black Horehound, Nettle, Yarrow, Hawkbit, Dandelion,  Prickly Lettuce, Sow-Thistles, Ribwort, Goosefoot and Docks, Rosebay, Ragwort and Wall Barley.  (These may sound like plain and common plants but it is the common ones that have the most species reliant upon them - and it is the common plants - especially arable weeds - which have suffered the greatest decline in recent years.)

 

A second tier - of the climbing and binding species - is also becoming established:  Field and Greater Bindweeds are adding floral colour and greenness to the rather bare leggy parts of the hedge, and the latter has even grown right to the top of some of the dead trees - this is its natural function and what the wildlife that evolved with it would expect.  White Bryony, Bramble, and Bittersweet have already joined this intermediate level of the hedgerow and in time one would expect that Clematis, Ivy, Rose, Black Bryony, Honeysuckle and even (since it grows nearby) Hop will follow.  These are all important native fruit-bearing species for wildlife, and they depend on a mature hedgerow (which can be considered to be a double sided woodland border) for their support.

 

A laid and regularly trimmed hedge would only support a fraction of the wildlife that is supported by the multi-tier woodland edge effect that is developing in the current situation.  This is particularly the case because trimming removes both the fruiting tips and flower buds, and the spurs on which butterfly and other insect eggs are overwintering.  The quantity of fruit that is borne even on the presently rather stressed looking mature hawthorn trees is a very considerable resource which will never be bettered in a trimmed hedge.

 

 

 

‘Roast Beef Plant’ rediscovered alive and well:

 

                The benefit of maintaining the full height, and shade function of the hedgerow, and of ceasing regular strimming, was immediately borne out with the welcome rediscovery of a shade loving plant which I had thought had been lost from the area.  Whilst surveying in the early days of the Wildlife Project I found the interesting Iris foetidissima (one of our two native irises) growing in the spinney by the Bide-a-while.  I have not been able to relocate it there since, which is a shame because it is a comparatively scarce species in the county and had not been recorded in Luton by John Dony.

 

                It appears that the plant (a perennial with leaves smelling of roast beef) may have been beneath the hedgerow all the time but always had its top mown off by the mowers and strimmers.  Perhaps next year we will be able to enjoy seeing the flowers and the unusual winter berries - the former of which I have never seen.  [An interesting footnote to this episode is that today I was even more pleased to find three more of these plants growing in the most unpromising of conditions underneath the Thuja hedge surrounding the most northerly of the tennis courts in Wardown Park - one has flowered and should present its berries for the winter soon.  A demonstration that wild flowers can occur in and be an interesting part of even a formal park setting.]

 

 

Fireblight ?

 

In my letter to the paper I pointed out that I have noticed, all this year, a widespread problem of poor leafing up in trees of many ornamental kinds throughout the region.  I had noticed the trees all along the New Bedford Rd and at first thought this was due to past strimming etc regimes, or to the clones all ageing and sickening at the same time.  However, I soon noticed that the problem extended to many types of trees, both public and in private gardens, so put it down to the combined results of last year’s drought and a poor spring and summer.

 

When fireblight was mentioned in the paper I thought that perhaps this might be an alternative explanation so I got in touch with MAFF to see if they were aware of a widespread fireblight problem this year.  I was surprised to find that, both at Rothamstead and at East Malling, the attitude was that fireblight was not much of a problem these days, and they were unaware of any current problems.  Fireblight was no longer a notifiable disease they said.

 

Eventually I got through to Mr DS Townend at the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate in Chelmsford.  Mr Townend had more experience of the disease and said that he wasn’t aware of any problems at the moment, and that MAFF was only interested in outbreaks if they occurred at nurseries or similar ‘registered’ premises, where there was the likelihood of infected stock being sold on.  Mr Townend thought that, despite all the rain this year, the stressed-looking trees were probably the result of the droughts in recent years, and that most planted trees were unable to cope because they never develop proper root systems - unlike naturally seeded and located trees which have much deeper penetrating root systems and are better able to cope with adverse conditions.

 

Mr Townend was able to send me some leaflets on fireblight but was quite firm in reminding me that these were out of date and for information only.  MAFF, it seems, no longer consider the problem serious enough to merit updating and reprinting the info sheets on the subject.  However, the sheets are quite interesting and pertinent to the current situation.

 

Originally, the principle concern with the disease was that it might wipe out production in the, very susceptible, pear species and particularly of the variety ‘Laxton’s Superb’.  The disease spreads quickly in these trees and they were usually unsaveable - but it must be remembered that this is from the economic standpoint of bearing a profitable crop, not necessarily from the life expectancy of the tree.

 

Apple was less susceptible to the disease, and the trees were usually saveable by careful pruning out of any affected shoots.  Hawthorn was mainly only a problem as a reservoir of possible reinfection of commercial trees and it was recommended that hedgerows be regularly cut to prevent them flowering ,as the bacteria enter through the blossoms.  Needless to say, preventing an amenity hedgerow from flowering would destroy most of its wildlife value and beauty.

 

Even in economic terms the MAFF pamphlet states: “In general, however, losses on a national scale to date (1984) have been minor”.  That was 1984:  this week my impression from speaking to the various departments was that the importance of the disease has continued to decline to the point that most of them have no recent experience of it.

 

A lucky escape ?

 

It seems to me that this is an example of nature being allowed to take its course and weed out susceptible trees over a number of years, until we are now left with the comparatively resistant ones and a minor problem.  Had there been an ‘effective’ spray available during the first scare period in the 50’s we would, very probably, now have, instead, resistant disease, and weak trees that couldn’t exist without constant spraying - just what the chemical firms like...

 

Reducing susceptibility

 

This section of the pamphlet is very pertinent to tree problems in Luton.  Contrary to what one would expect, it is the vigorous, fast growing, trees that are the most susceptible!  This is because fast growth spreads the disease to all parts of the tree more quickly.  Slower growing trees and species are more able to confine the problem to the new shoots and flowers where the attack first occurs:

 

                “any practice that encourages soft, sappy growth should be avoided.  So far as is practicable, pruning should be kept to a minimum...Irrigation should not be used in early summer because it increases shoot growth...it may be worth reducing plant growth rates by limiting the area around trees that is treated with herbicides and thus allowing grass sword to be established closer to the base of the trees”

 

It is clear from this advice that practices often used to speed growth and maximise yield are actually detrimental, and result in weak, disease-susceptible, plants.  In the urban situation there is, of course, no economic case to argue for requiring rapid growth characteristics and no need to risk disease through unnecessary laying, coppicing or trimming activities.  As these activities also act to reduce the three dimensional structure, fruiting volume, and aesthetic appeal of the hedgerow they would best be avoided if at all possible.  (Slower growing trees are also physically stronger, having more - reinforcing - growth rings per inch.)

 

Looking at the trees along New Bedford Road between Stockingstone and Kingsdown, I could see that they were spindly from being too close together, and stressed like many other trees in town, but I couldn’t find any that seemed to fit the description of fireblight-suffering trees exactly.  I saw none with the characteristic crooking of the shoot tips described in the literature, and only found one example of a died-off shoot with a red brown colouration under the bark - and even this appeared to have been well sealed off and had healthy leaves and fruits below the junction.  I found many examples of poorly leafed shoots where the bark, on closer inspection, proved to be green and healthy. 

 

Whilst I do not profess any particular expertise in this matter, my opinion would be that these trees are fighting off any infection - fireblight or not - and that most would recover if given the opportunity.

 

Ref: ‘Fireblight of apple and pear’, MAFF Leaflet 571 1984.

 

 

‘Over-mature’?

 

                These trees are not old by hawthorn standards - the Hethel Old Thorn in Norwich is said to have been planted in the reign of King John, and, locally, there are (or were when I last looked) some particularly beautifully old and gnarled specimens in Stockwood Park, with many times the girth of the New Bedford Rd trees.  A girth of 2.5 metres is not unknown.  Leggy, yes: over-mature no.

 

 

Re your report to Sports & Parks Sub 2.9.98

 

Bearing in mind the above observations, some of the points raised can be reappraised:

 

3.  The “valuable food resource” and horticultural appeal of the hedgerow will be largely destroyed if it is laid and regularly trimmed as proposed.  This will further be reduced if Elder - a highly important food and nectar species - is removed!  The view of elder as a problem species relates to its ‘layability’ not to its wildlife value or aesthetic appeal.  As the hedgerow is not required to be stock proof there is no reason to exclude this important species.  (Incidentally, elder is one of a few wild species that supports something of a local economy - local people have been observed collecting the blossom for distillation, by Ransomes of Hitchin, for use in a number of popular herbal products.  We should not be encouraging the public to think of this valuable plant as an invasive weed.)

 

4.  The decline in the quality of the hawthorns is not likely to be due to any “relatively short life span of the species” but is more likely to be the combined result of overcrowding and previous drought and management practices.  Susceptibility to fireblight is usually associated with young, vigorously growing, trees: not with slow growing mature ones.  This lack of vigour has little effect on wildlife value and the trees appear to be fruiting well.  The dead wood - which we may find unsightly - is an added bonus for wildlife, particularly for scarce species such as the Stag Beetle.

 

5.  The ‘deterioration’ of the hedgerow is largely an aesthetic judgement, and if one considers the number and bulk of species present, one would actually say it is improving.  Future maintenance should be kept to a minimum to encourage this.

 

6.  Vigour is not required in a mature feature, and encouraging it may well invite disease.  Coppicing

is a practice (now used) only to improve wildlife potential in woodlands which have lost their ground flora by shading out.  It is not appropriate to hedgerows, which already enjoy the benefits of both light and shade.  Coppicing woodland increases wildlife value by creating hedgerow-like conditions - extra ‘woodland edges’- : coppicing this hedgerow would largely destroy those conditions.

 

Elder

 

Elder is an important species and some mature standards of this would improve both aesthetic and wildlife value by providing abundant blossom at a time when the hawthorn has finished flowering.  Elder also forms a wonderfully gnarled and visually interesting mature tree.

 

Replanting

 

Any replanting of the gaps should be carefully considered in this setting.  It is possible that, if overdone, a ‘tunnel’ effect could be created which would lead to calls for removal as people become scared to use the path.

 

Oak and Maple?

 

I would personally not advise the planting of oak and field maple trees alongside the road if they are intended to become standards.  We already have a problem that such trees as we already have are subjected to constant drastic and unsightly pruning because of fears that branches might fall on people and cars.  If we are to plant these species anywhere, we should think of their typical 400 year life span and put them somewhere where they will stand a chance of growing unmolested for future generations to enjoy. 

 

If these species are to be planted, then we should encourage local children to plant acorns and other seed from local stock so that trees have the chance to put down proper root systems.  Transplanted trees will have a high susceptibility to drought and wind rock and will be the first to fall in any future repetition of the gales of 1987.  (These are expected to become more frequent, from the effects of global warming, in the years ahead.)  This last fact should be remembered before embarking on any ‘Millennium Tree‘ plantings, if they are not to suffer the same fate as the Seven Oaks did in 1987.

 

Small-leaved Lime

 

If there is room for any mature large trees in this area, space should be made for cuttings or seed from the Small-leaved Lime at the back of Manton Drive.  This tree is noted by Dony as the last surviving specimen of this scarce native species in the town.  It has been badly damaged by gales and has even had fires lit against it, but it still manages a healthy show of leafage every year.  We ought to make an effort to propagate from it before it is too late.

 

Hazel

 

The most desirable addition to the hedgerow would be hazel which would be more of a scale with the existing species and could be allowed to grow to maturity with less likelihood of wind rock and other problems.  Other species such as rosa, rubus and prunus should be allowed to arrive on their own.

 

8.  Laying is not necessary where there is no desire to create a stock-proof barrier.  A certain amount of laying between frequent standard trees would possibly improve aesthetic appeal but it might lead to loss of shade loving species such as Iris foetidissima and compromise the future establishment of others such as bluebell.  The hedgerow will begin to thicken up on its own now that strimming has been restricted.

 

9.  This is not true.  A certain amount of pruning will no doubt be advantageous, but the usual mechanical thrashing carried out on hedgerows, removes fruiting spurs and insect, and potential bird, breeding sites, and encourages weak sappy growth, which is never allowed to bear flowers or fruit, and may be susceptible to diseases like fireblight if it is allowed to flower.

 

 

Recommendations

 

Taking into account all of the above points, FoE would advise that a certain amount of management is desirable to improve the aesthetic appeal of the hedgerow.  While we do not think this is essential from a biodiversity point of view, we would recommend:

 

·       the removal of the more unsightly of the dead trees and coppicing of the minimum amount of the live ones necessary to create the breathing space for many of the trees to remain as standards;

 

·       careful pruning out of the more unsightly dead wood from the remaining trees;

 

·       in severe cases creation of pollards would be preferable to coppicing - some of our oldest hawthorns are pollards;

 

·       in case fireblight is present, tools should be sterilised after use and any suspect wood removed to landfill.  No attempt should be made to create chippings for mulch with suspect material;

 

·       care should be taken to retain the holly and elder as these are both important food trees, and the former is difficult to establish;

 

·       some interplanting with other species such as hazel where they cannot be relied upon to establish themselves from seed;

 

·       any laying activities to be restricted to the minimum necessary to fill gaps;

 

·       subsequent trimming should be the minimum necessary to keep the hedgerow within bounds and aesthetically acceptable. This should not be on a yearly basis:  so as to maximise the production of flowers and fruit and minimise the disturbance to wildlife.  (This trimming would normally have been carried out by the stock eating the new growth and is one of the reasons that laying of the older - less appetising - stems was successful and, indeed, essential);

 

·       continuing the new ‘hands off policy’ with regard to mowing:  thus maintaining a good ground and intermediate level flora, with a gradual transition from the formal to the informal.

 

 

Other related matters in this area:

 

Wardown Park etc

 

Whilst the restoration work is being considered vis-à-vis Wardown Park, it might be advantageous to consider extending this remit to the old orchard, allotments, and Bide-a-while north of Stockingstone Road and perhaps extending the park to incorporate them.  The corner of Stockingstone and New Bedford Rd could, possibly, be transformed from a gypsy target into a community orchard which could incorporate the overgrown allotments as well.  Perhaps ducks and geese from Wardown could be encouraged as traditional croppers of the grass under the trees.  (I notice the river here is already being used by moorhens.)

 

It is a shame that the noted plant Unbranched Bur-reed, remarked upon by John Dony, no longer seems to be growing where he saw it as the river nears Stockingstone.

 

The Bide-a-while is beautifully well maintained, but I remain rather apprehensive as to the future of the herb garden.  There are some uncommon medicinal herbs growing there and I have a fear that they might be lost in some future tidying up exercise.  Two of the plants - Elecampane and Costmary - have both flowered this year even thouugh they do not usually do this outside their Mediterranean home (Global Warming?).  There is also a good patch of Chamomile proper which is becoming a nationally rare plant.  There is a possibility that this may originate from native stock: another reason for looking after a very interesting and historic part of the gardens.  I would like to see these beds form the basis of a Physic Garden like the one at Hitchin museum.  This would be a valuable educational resource and minor tourist attraction as well as a beautiful part of the garden.

 

 

Wardown

 

With regard to the public consultation on the future of Wardown, I was a little surprised to find that there was no hand-out explaining exactly what was planned.  The display boards were not easy to follow (though they were beautifully done) without any accompanying leaflet.

 

When you are considering the responses, I would like you to consider highlighting some of the park’s natural assets, such as explanatory boards on the types of tree present, with particular regard to the unusual Black Poplars and the surviving Elm trees. 

 

Although the park looks too manicured and formal to support interesting wild plants, there are actually some unusual ones to be found - such as Lesser Swine-cress Coronopus didymus and Iris foetidissima which are comparatively scarce plants in the county.  The damp gully between the southern path and the new flats is actually an old tributary to the river and has potential for encouraging wetland plants such as Marsh Marigold.  It already looks botanically intriguing and would deserve a thorough survey over a year to see what is already growing there.  Nearer to the path, the shady aspect would benefit from woodland flower plantings such as primrose and bluebell (Squill and Winter Aconites already regularly come up on the, apparently lifeless, lakeside nearby.

 

Attention should be drawn to the significant engineering feet that was involved in providing the head of water for the mill at Mill Street. This is one of the functions of the ‘waterworks’ to the south of the lake and is what the conduit on the east side of New Bedford Rd is for.  It would also be very informative to have historic maps on display, showing the river and mill site prior to the building of the road, railways, and the making of the park.  Robin has (or had) in his office one of the best and oldest maps I’ve seen.  This would make the basis for an interesting display map (most people don’t realise that the river used to have two channels in the Wardown area which were excavated to form the lake, and that the eastern of the channels used to reach up to the Old Bedford Rd, apparently where horses were watered.

 

I apologise for the lengthy nature of this letter and hope that you will not think me over critical of the department’s efforts, which are considerable given the level of funding made available these days.  I think you may find it possible to improve the aesthetic and biodiversity appeal of this and other hedgerows in the town, and minimise the disturbance to wildlife and to the public, if the above points are taken into account.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Steve Hawkins

For Luton Friends of the Earth.

 

 

Text of letter published in Luton News 9.9.98:

 

Dear Sir,

                                With regard to ‘Ailing trees face the kindest cut’ - LN 2.9.98

               

I do hope the council will reconsider the drastic action planned for the New Bedford Road hedgerows.  I have noticed that for much of this year a great many of the rosaceous trees - those in the group including hawthorn, cherry, plum and many types of ornamental species - in town, and in the wider region, have been suffering from stress and failure to leaf up.  This is no local problem and if the remedy planned was widely practised we would be facing a tree loss of disastrous proportions. 

 

The sensible course of action is to do our best to reduce the stresses facing the trees and give them time to recover.  Trees have mechanisms for fighting off disease, just as we do, and, like us, with kind treatment they get better.  For example FoE asked the council not to cut down plane trees at St Mathews School when they lost all their leaves after overuse of weedkiller in 1993 (photo enclosed).  These trees are now healthily in leaf and doing fine.  The leaf loss was a sign of stress and that the trees were responding correctly to it - conserving their resources for the fight against the poison.  They won, but they were very lucky to be given the chance.

 

Most of the trees and hedgerows in town are under similar stress.  Since commercial strimming gangs replaced dedicated parks professionals there is hardly a tree in town which has not had its bark damaged, or ripped clean away, at ground level (photo enclosed).  To this wound is then added weedkiller, even though the ‘weeds’ are essential for keeping the soil around the tree moist, open and healthy.  This dead, compacted, soil can’t absorb the rain, which runs away uselessly.  Such stressed trees then find it harder to fight the diseases and droughts they would normally be able to shrug off.  (The council must spend a fortune planting, killing, and ‘replacing’ trees in this way.)

 

Hedgelaying - as proposed for the New Bedford Rd treees, is not an appropriate treatment for what is now really a row of amenity trees.  Its purpose was to create a stock proof barrier and provide low growing green leaves in the spring for grazing animals.  There is now no stock in New Bedford Rd and no need to turn an interesting hedgerow into just another boring, trimmed and strimmed, hedge.  If the mowing and strimming are laid off and the natural undergrowth of wild hedgerow plants is allowed to grow up and fill in the gaps, the trees will either recover on their own or be naturally replaced with self sown ones.  Such a thickened hedgerow, with its retained mature trees, is a much superior habitat for birds and other wildlife than a mere hedge.  Who knows, with the nation’s major dormouse population not far away, they might even take up residence in Luton.  (I recommend councillors visit Kew Gardens to see how to manage an excellent mix of formality and wilderness despite having to cope with a huge number of visitors.)

 

This solution is similar to that which was suggested by Jessica Moody in the Leader when she asked for the return of park keepers to make our parks safe again.  If the Victorians, with very little machinery and technology, could create and maintain beautiful parks and townscapes, why can’t we?

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Steve Hawkins

Luton Friends of the Earth.