Helen and the trees she saved from axing
The tree stands sandwiched between a car park and a supermarket delivery entrance. Overlooked by many, this remnant of pioneering Cantabrians was almost lost to haste and development.
The 160-year-old Hadfield Elm was one of more than 1500 trees Helen Lowe saved from the axe. It is the largest horizontal elm in the country.
In 2016, with a team of arborists, landscape architects and lawyers, Lowe led mediation with the Christchurch City Council and the Crown to keep hundreds of trees on the Christchurch District Plan Schedule of Significant Trees. They were removed without public consultation.
The group collected arboricultural and cultural information to show not only the health of the trees, but their significance to the community.
‘‘I’ve never had so many sleepless nights in my whole life as that year,’’ Lowe said from under the elm canopy at the corner of Stanmore Rd and London St.
‘‘There are probably still a lot of people in Christchurch who don’t know a lot of trees were proposed to be taken off the register.’’
The NZ Arboricultural Association awarded Lowe the Ronald Flook Award on October 28 to recognise her efforts.
Through court-like mediation, the ‘‘Civic Trust of Christchurch and others’’ – who Lowe calls ‘‘Team Trees’’ – secured a mediated agreement with the council and an independent agreement with the Crown.
‘‘The mediated agreement saw more than 900 trees on private land returned to the register, but there were still 723 on public land.
‘‘That was where I did the separate negotiation with the Crown to get them to agree that the trees on public land could still be on the register.’’
A former Transit New Zealand (now NZ Transport Agency) planner, now full-time freelance writer and author, Lowe said she ‘‘always loved trees’’.
‘‘I felt that after the earthquake when the city had lost so much... one of the things that had overall not done too badly and had survived was Christchurch’s trees.
‘‘I felt that it was really important for the city that we try and keep [trees with heritage value] for the landscape of the city and for people’s sense of identity.’’
Aside from character, Lowe said removing so many large trees would harm the environment.
‘‘It’s the really big trees that do the environmental heavy lifting, and I think they also do the heavy lifting from a landscape point of view.’’
The Hadfield Elm was planted about 1868 by Joseph Hadfield and his family, who emigrated from England on board the Mersey.
'There are probably still a lot of people in Christchurch who don't know a lot of trees were proposed to be taken off the register.'
Helen Lowe, tree advocate