TREE WORK IN THE COPSE & FENLAND AREA OF THE

LOWER FIELD, LOUIE MEMORIAL FIELDS, ARNOLDS WAY

JANUARY 2011


Reasons why pollarding was necessary!


A STATEMENT BY THE RECREATION & AMENITIES SUB-COMMITTEE (8/2/2011)



With the Oxford Mail article, 28 January 2011 and leaflets and posters by the anonymous pressure group Friends of the Louie Memorial Fields & Copse (FOF), containing misinformation and incorrect facts, we would like you to know the truth. 50 trees were not cut down, only 9 pollarded and 5 coppiced. It does look dramatic at the moment, but willow trees soon grow back. You will see photographs later showing the poor state that some of the trees were in. Although they looked pretty, their long term viability was decreasing, many had split, some unsafe and branches had fallen down.


Over the last four years we have consulted with local ecological experts about what we needed to do to ensure that this area stays as an area of outstanding beauty, not dying. The copse and fenland are community assets for the enjoyment of all parishioners. The Parish Council has arranged work in order to protect the valuable rare fenland over the last six months for current and future generations to enjoy.


When the outline Louie Memorial Fields Project was displayed in December 2006 there was general support from the community. Since 2007 NHPC has delivered some of the phases: replaced play equipment, the Multigames Court (MUGA) and Trim Trail and all by external funding. In severe weather water flowed off the NHPC land and created flooding problems for homes between Hurst Rise and Hutchcomb Roads. As land owners, if possible, we had a duty to take any reasonable measures to mitigate this. After commissioning two ecology reports on the Copse, and talking to the Oxfordshire Conservation Trust (OCT) and a pond expert, the Copse Project was worked up in early 2009. We applied for a grant from the Trust for Oxfordshire Environment (TOE) who assessed the project and were interested, subject to satisfactory reports being commissioned on hydrology and plant and fauna reports and recommended appointing Drs. Lamberth and Webb as specialists in their fields. When this information was reported to parishioners NHPC became aware of a small number of people local to the area, called Copsewatch, who did not want any changes and lobbied TOE and other organisations in an attempt to derail the Copse Project and stop grant payment to the NHPC for works.


The reports indicated that the fenland area was both extremely rare but also very vulnerable and recommended urgent action to reclaim part of the fen that had died out. This meant diverting part of the stream in the copse and establishing a pond with control measures to adjust the flow of water onwards. The ecology report from Dr. Webb showed that there were some rare insects and interesting plants. TOE eventually decided to fund the hydrology work and Trim Trail and NHPC received a total grant of just over £19,000 to cover all costs, including hire of the digger and payment for the Trim Trail in the ‘Upper’ playing field. NHPC funded the viewing platform and stone path to the pond, which has proved popular from earmarked reserves in its earmarked Pavilion and Playing Fields Development Fund, which was first established in 2000 to provide for improvement and redevelopment works to the Pavilion and playing field areas.


A contractor was appointed at the December 2010 Council to pollard or coppice (cut back) the trees identified by our consultants. The reason for the work was to let more light into the reclaimed fen area and encourage other flora to grow and also make management of the trees easier in future years. Two trees on the other side of the concrete path were leaning over so they were considered dangerous and needed to be cut back too. Naturally pollarded trees look dreadful at first, but willows quickly recover and grow fast. By May the fen and meadow are will have greened up well.


NHPC commissioned a Management Plan for the copse and fenland area that contained a detailed three year programme of work which was discussed at and accepted by 10 votes to 1 vote at our January 2011 Council Meeting. At the meeting, NHPC decided that the best way to deliver this plan would be to have a professionally organised group of local volunteers working alongside NHPC. To achieve this NHPC will seek funding, or if necessary, allocate some of our earmarked reserves to work with the British Conservation Trust Volunteers (BCTV) to provide 8 professionally led training sessions for local volunteers to work on aspects of the Copse Management Plan, and also at the award winning NHPC Nature Reserve and Community Orchard in North Hinksey Lane, in a productive way observing health and safety measures. At the end of this training, the volunteers that have successfully completed the training sessions will form a properly constituted group and will agree with the NHPC on how they could take over identified responsibilities and maintenance on land owned by the Parish Council.


NHPC has been advised that if no management plan is implemented then one side of what is a rare fen would probably be lost within 30 years, the other side within 60 years. The stream would start eroding again, the speed of water off the land would get greater and result in more flooding in back gardens of houses down stream. NHPC acknowledges its responsibilities here to ensure the rare fenland remains to be enjoyed by future generations and as such it would be irresponsible not to introduce the management plan for both fenland and copse.


We hope you will support how we are managing the Copse and Fenland Project, guided by experts who know what they are talking about, so all those in the parish can visit and enjoy whenever it suits them in years to come. Yes, currently the pollarded trees look bleak – that is the short term view – visit and see how greened up the area will be by May and the trees sprouting well within the year.


Please take time to view the photographs of how damaged the trees looked in the reclaimed fen area before they were pollarded or coppiced and the following examples of mis-information quoted in the literature produced by the group calling themselves the Friends of the Louie Memorial Field and Copse.







The following are examples (in italics) of misinformation contained in their leaflet, which the group hoped you would believe.


FICTION

The leaflet states ‘and the digger for doing the work cost over £13,000?


FACT

The cost of the hydrology works was £11,475 and covered the following works: -


The actual of all these works to the Parish Council and not just the digger as the Friends of the Field leaflet would wish parishioners to believe, was £11,475. TOE AGREED that of a larger sum of grant aid received, £11,475 of it could be spent on this work.



The Oxford Mail Article – Residents’ Fury after trees cut down.

FICTION

Residents said about 50 trees had been attacked leaving about 20% of the area blown apart.


FACT

Planned work was undertaken on trees in the reclaimed fenland area, which were in various states of health as they were either split, partly fallen, in a state of decay or unsafe (see above),

The following work was undertaken: -

Fenland

7 willows were pollarded

1 ash by the bridge and 2 small ash were coppiced

Along the Stream in the Fen

1 ash was pollarded,

2 hazel were coppiced and a

1 fallen willow was pollarded by the stream in the fen


Total number of trees in the fenland which had some work done on them = 14, not 50


It should be remembered that the trees were pollarded or coppiced and were not cut down or taken out. This work was required to allow the rare reclaimed fenland to regenerate, as in early years it requires a good level of increased sunlight. The majority of the trees were willow, pollarding being a good woodland maintenance procedure. Willow is an acknowledged grower which quickly regenerates rapid growth and the trees will soon grow back, but at a height where they can be maintained by volunteers without difficulty.   It is considered that it would be both foolish and unwise to allow a commended project to fail at this stage as a result of inadequate sunlight.  

Two other trees required work on them to address health and safety issues as they were close to the concrete path between Hurst Rise Road and Cedar Road. One had already split and had earlier fallen across the pathway and had to be removed, which resulted in the remaining part of the tree being declared unsafe. The split joint was near ground level. The second tree which was much higher was already leaning from its vertical position. Due to its close proximity to the path and adjoining land it needed pollarding.