Maitland residents should be advised on planting strategies as the city prepares to replace our fallen trees and shrubs, a leading conservationist has said.
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Heritage conservationist Chris Richards has called for an advisory service to be established as a matter of urgency to educate residents on which trees should replace those lost during last month’s storm and subsequent flooding.
“It’s become apparent that people have not been advised on how big trees grow, how big the roots will be and whether they are being planted too close to buildings etc,” Mr Richards said.
“As a community this has to be addressed so it doesn’t happen again so we need to set up some type of advisory service so people can find out what trees are best.
“We need to start looking at the proximity of where trees should be planted in relation to our buildings.
“Trees are extremely important but they can also be a danger when they come down and that’s what’s happening now. You can put a tree in and it can become a monster in 30 years and endanger lives and buildings.”
Mr Richards said installing the city’s power lines underground would also help to eliminate power cuts during storms.
“If the wires were underground we would not have this problem. Obviously there will be a cost but we should be gradually doing this street by street,” he said.
“Places around Maitland were out of power for long periods of time because we haven’t got an infrastructure upgrade.
Aesthetically the underground wire system would be also be beneficial to the city, Mr Richards said.
“We have reached a situation now where trees have become less important than wires and there are other alternatives,” he said.
“Surely we can change and go underground to save the whole of the community. No-one complains about the ugly wires and the power failures but everyone blames the trees.
“But is it the chicken or the egg? This is what we really have to focus on.
“We’re fighting a constant battle to view ugly wires versus a more sensible alternative of improving the streetscape.”