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By Gordon Levet
In recent times trees generated money, not from milling or exports, but for companies that work for councils. This is a story of a single tree with a mystery twist.
I was driving from home to Wellsford on State Highway 16. Before entering the town there was a road works sign and a long length of road cones in the centre of the road. The line of traffic was at a stop.
Two traffic management staff were present about 400 metres apart. On the side of the road were the contractors four large trucks, one with a crane. There were six workmen grouped together, probably discussing the strategy to be used on their mission, which was to prune one straggly bottle brush tree that had branches in power lines.
Other workmen were present working on a nearby home. They suggested that this tree should not be pruned but removed. They were told that this could not be done because it was on council property.
Eventually, the tree was pruned slightly to ensure that the tree would have to be pruned every third or fourth year over its life time. The owner of the home nearest to the tree said the work took about half-a-day and he estimated the cost to be near $10,000.
This is why it had the label of a money tree, as it would continue to generate money for many years – money from our rates!
But what was the mystery? For this piece I decided to take a photo of this pruned tree, but mysteriously this tree was no more. On closer inspection, someone had pruned the tree just over half a metre above ground level. Whether this action was legal, I do not know. But, it was a sensible solution and will delay the next prune for at least 10 years.
The whole operation would have taken about 30 minutes, with only one labour unit, not the eight that were working for half-a-day – no waste of public time in stationary cars, no waste of fuel with four trucks and many road vehicles.
In rural areas of the city, there would be many thousands of trees growing under power lines on roadsides. All have to be inspected and, if necessary, pruned at a huge annual cost.
Roads are 20 metres wide so there is plenty of room for the roads, power lines and trees to exist. Trees that tangle with power lines should be removed, with many remaining for aesthetic value. This should be undertaken by workers with chainsaws without the huge costs of traffic management. Most of the road side trees are native with totara and manuka dominant.
Finally, I find it ironic that 50 years ago we rejoiced in having bulldozers and latterly diggers doing the work of 20 men, where we now have heavy machinery and many workers doing the work of one person.
This is but one example of many showing the wastage of money, human resources and fossil fuels.
