Devastated to find trees chopped down at park
Just another example of misuse of our natural resources, writes
Iwas devastated to find that the poplar trees at Emneth Park have been felled. I often take my little grandchildren to Emneth Park and those trees were always a joy for us. And I’m sure for others, also.
We would climb the hill leading up to the children’s wooden play castle at the park and I would tell my grandchildren about the trees, that they were poplars and of all the reasons why trees are so vital to our planet. We would listen to the wind whispering in the leaves and imagine stories that the poplar trees were telling.
I understand from a friend that there was a “health and safety” issue surrounding an incident where a branch blew from one of the poplars and hit a goal post.
So, why were the trees not merely trimmed? Or the goal posts moved to another area of the field?
Or, if felling was deemed absolutely necessary, why not just the trees that were actually (allegedly) hazardous?
Now that they are gone, when wind blows there will be nothing to slow its velocity and the resultant damage could indeed be significant.
Then there may really be a health and safety issue!
I feel, as I’m sure others do if they have even the remotest connection to the natural world, that this is health and safety gone mad.
Health and safety is, in this instance, actually contributing to the very opposite.
Those trees were a wind barrier, flood water sponges and, like all trees, providers of well-needed carbon dioxide absorption.
They were a thing of beauty, especially for our children to wonder at, enjoy and learn about.
We are living on a planet in crisis due to our misuse of its natural resources which, despite warnings and awareness, we continue to mindlessly plunder and destroy.
These are, or ought to be, vital and active aspects to be integrated into our children’s education, with a view to inspiring in our children a passion for change – a change to a reconnection with our beautiful natural world.
Helen Clare Jones.