Sometimes we do need to lose trees
■ Mark Stewart describes as ‘carnage’ the removal of trees from along railway sidings and other places (MetroTalk, Mon).
I must take issue with Mark, who sees this ‘needless felling of trees’ as an ‘apt metaphor for a species intent on self-destruction’. I might also be going up against conservationist Chris Packham, interviewed in the same edition of Metro.
Trees in the right place are useful for countering climate change but trees in the wrong place can exacerbate it. Trees by railways have to be managed, otherwise they will disrupt the service. One bringing down overhead electrification will cause disruption long after the tree is removed.
This results in increased energy use even if only through diverting trains by a longer route. It might involve increases such as using onboard power for a service usually using electrification, or replacement buses.
The dramatic felling of trees by the railways is the response to the real problem – not managing trees sufficiently in previous years. We need to be improving railways, not boobytrapping them.
Charles EL Gilman, Mitcham
■ Every day we lose hundreds of thousands of trees in the UK – one of the least wooded countries in the world – to the felling industry, to developers, to local authorities and to private landowners.
That’s even though it is illegal to fell while birds are nesting (from the start of March to the end of August) and even though trees are the most valuable living organism on the planet (but only when left in the ground).
It’s a fact that burning trees is even less sustainable than burning fossil fuel. Every day whole woods are cleared and trees damaged.
The removal of a single tree is one of the most damaging environmental crimes imaginable and this fact needs to be recognised in law and in our response to felling. There’s never an objective reason to fell.
Lou Stothard, Birkenhead
■ Mark talks about the removal of trees in Sussex, where he lives. The Surrey-Kent border is no different.
I too am staggered at the destruction of woodland. I’ve never seen as many trees destroyed as I have over the past 12 months. What’s going on?
Russ, Warlingham
■ Leicestershire is just as bad. Blaby district council’s mantra seems to be ‘see a tree, chop it down’.
Maggie, Leicestershire
■ We had a fierce storm recently that accounted for many trees being cut down due to safety issues. This wouldn’t normally be happening here in Hampshire but there are hundreds that were damaged.
Alex, Hampshire