Greens call for National fund for roadside tree maintenance
As the end of the time allowable for hedge cutting under the wildlife act approaches, the Green Party is calling on Government to make available a central fund to Local Authorities for the proper management of roadside trees.
Making the call in the Seanad this week, Senator and former Minister for Nature, Malcolm Noonan expressed concern about political calls for derogation on the hedge cutting season and for all roadside trees to be systematically removed in the wake of Storm Éowyn. He said that the Wildlife Act already accommodated roadside safety as an exemption and that the proper maintenance, pruning and reduction of roadside trees would be better for nature, for farming and resilience in the face of future severe weather events.
‘If local authorities could draw on a central fund to engage contractors to reduce ash trees suffering from dieback, but also to prune and reduce roadside trees more generally, we could, over a few seasons reduce the risk of storm damage and continue to benefit from the ecosystem services, shelter and flood attenuation that trees provide in the countryside’ said Senator Noonan.
He said that calls for complete removal of trees were misguided and that there is a value in leaving trees, even ash standing but safe from a road safety point of view. He pointed to research in the UK which suggests that there may be hope for Ash trees in the countryside and that older trees in some parts of the country may be more resilient to the fungus. ‘I have witnessed widespread removal of roadside trees over the past few weeks, in particular as. We could be unwittingly removing dieback tolerant ash trees, preventing them from setting seed and all that really needs to be done is to make them safe on our roadsides. Even standing diseased trees can provide habitats to many species’ he said.
‘I will be writing to the Ministers for Agriculture, Local Government and Nature and Heritage to work together to put the case for a significant fund to be made specifically available for sustainable management of roadside trees and hedgerows. During my time in office, we developed and piloted a training course for contractors with the Laois Offaly ETB to better maintain hedgerows for nature. A national rollout of this programme (as actioned in the National Biodiversity Action Plan) would lead to better management of hedgerows and roadside trees for nature, for farming, protection of services to rural communities and for road safety’.
‘As we move towards ramping up nature restoration here in Ireland, it is vital that we work with nature to embed resilience against future severe weather events rather than knee-jerk reactions to a storm such as Éowyn. A centrally available and rolling fund for training and to better manage and maintain roadside trees, in particular ash would in my view be a positive step forward in future-proofing infrastructure, road safety and nature conservation’ concluded Senator Noonan.
