THE reduction of a street tree on Alkira Way to its trunk has caused debate between residents who say the tree was in perfect health and Orange City Council, which maintains it was critically damaged and unviable.
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Residents maintained the wrong tree was cut down after a storm on December 13.
Dr Glenda Hodge said husband Barry Keene reported a poplar on Wirrabarra Walk had snapped in half during the storm before they left on a weekend trip, but a prunus on nearby Alkira Way had received the treatment instead after it lost a branch.
“To our absolute horror, the prunus had been chopped down to a one-metre trunk,” she said.
“Worse still, the poplar that had fallen down in Wirrabarra Walk had been left untouched.
I think they thought this must be the tree instead of walking 10 metres.
- Dr Glenda Hodge
“[The prunus] was the best tree in the street.”
The poplar was dealt with the afternoon after residents again complained to the council, and Dr Hodge believed staff misinterpreted the complaint.
“I think they thought this must be the tree instead of walking 10 metres,” she said.
However, council spokesman Nick Redmond said the Wirrabarra Walk poplar was assessed when tree crews responded to the complaint, and the prunus was deemed a higher priority due to branches on the roadway and its risk to passing traffic.
“The damage included a tear in the tree trunk all the way down to the root crown,” he said.
“Three limbs were torn and less than 40 per cent of the tree’s canopy and branch structure was still intact – this meant the tree could not be sustained in a healthy and viable state.”
MAP: Where is Wirrabarra Walk …
Mr Redmond said the poplar did not pose a public risk and was removed only days later.
Dr Hodge said residents had been concerned about the health of the row of poplars for some time, particularly the dead branches in the upper canopy, and wanted to see them either pruned or long-term plans made for their replacement.
Mr Redmond said the council regularly monitored their health.
“Some started to show signs of stress during the millennium drought,” he said.
“A priority for the new year is developing a strategy for removal and replacement of the poplars.”
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