Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Nature notes: Queen's Wood Oaks in peril! Flying Ants! Swifts are weird! Save the Insects!
In this week's Nature notes, more local trees need your help, community gardeners required in Wood Green and find out why swifts are wonderful but weird.
Plus don't blame newts for holding up development.
Local Nature News
More Trees in Peril!
This time it is our very own Haringey Council planning to fell four mature oaks in Queens Wood because they are damaging a property, according to an insurance company.
As the petition explains:
“No account has been taken of the amenity value of these trees, their value to the human community or the habitat they provide for countless birds, insects, etc. The decision is entirely because the council is being threatened by an insurance company who don't want to pay the costs of underpinning the property concerned. Queen's Wood is a nature reserve, it is ancient woodland and it should be protected in law from claims such as these. The trees were there before the property was built and to fell them would create a disastrous precedent.”
They say that an oak spends 300 years growing, 300 years resting and 300 years declining gracefully. In all that vast time, they are host to hundreds of insect species, supplying many birds with an important food source.
The soft leaves of English oaks break down with ease in autumn and form a rich leaf mould beneath the tree, supporting invertebrates such as the stag beetle, and fungi, like the oakbug milkcap. Holes and crevices in the tree bark are perfect nesting spots and mammals and birds, such as squirrels, jays and deer feed on acorns.
Bats also roost in old woodpecker holes or under loose bark, as well as feeding on the rich supply of insects in the tree canopy. They support more life forms than any other native tree and it is their longevity that make them such important trees.
As the great ecologist and author Oliver Rackham observed, re mature trees "10,000 oaks of 100 years old are not a substitute for one 500 year old oak.”
If you want to sign the petition you can find it here
Oak information via The Woodland Trust
Fight to save The Happy Man Tree continues
Hackney council have undertaken this week not to activate the injunction before 17 July, so the Happy Man Tree has a short reprieve!
The Friends fight on and you can follow them on Twitter for updates:
And donate to their Crowdfunder here
You can even write to the tree.
Send letters of support to:
The Happy Man Tree,
82 Woodberry Grove, London N4 2RD
Wood Green Community Gardening
The Wood Green Library garden is taking shape and Grow N22 are looking for people to get involved. If you would like to know more, click here.
Creating the Robins Street Art in Mayes Road Timelapse
Last week I shared Peep o’Daze picture of the Giant Robins in Mayes Road. I was delighted to receive a link to this short timelapse film about the creation of the Street Art with music by Shamanic Technology.
An Eye for a Bird
I loved the Throwback Thursday email from Bruce Castle Museum this week as it was all about the wildlife and bird photographer from Haringey, Eric John Hosking OBE (1909-1991) – the ‘Father of modern bird photography’. Eric moved to 63 Weston Park, Crouch End, during the First World War. He attended the nearby Stationers’ School in Hornsey and received his first camera as a present from his parents aged around 7 years old. He continued to live in Crouch End when he married and his amazing career led him all over the world. He was president of the Nature Photographic Society, Vice-President of the British Ornithologists' Union, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Naturalists' Association and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the RSPB in 1974, and in 1977 received an OBE for his natural history photography and work in conservation. His autobiography was titled An Eye for A Bird
The email also included a long article about Eric Hosking, written by another award-winning wildlife photographer David Cottridge who is a Tottenham resident which I attach below.
Find out more about how to sign up for emails from the museum here
Getting Londoners Walking
I read this week of an interesting initiative made all the more urgent by the pandemic called London Footways, a collaboration between Living Streets and Urban Good to produce a map and resources to encourage Londoners in walk more between key London landmarks rather than taking the Tube or a cab. This sounds like a great idea. Personally I love walking in Central London so this could be a great help.
The map will be free and available from September. Read more about it here
Nature Notes
Fake Grass v Real Grass
After a conversation this week about the pros and cons of fake grass, I did a little research. It will come as no surprise I’m sure that I come down firmly on the side of the real thing, but I found two reasonably balanced resources to help people make up their own minds.
The first is a programme on BBC Sounds from the Costing the Earth series called Plastic Gardens
And the other is an article from The Guardian: Turf it out: is it time to say goodbye to artificial grass?
Grass in my garden
Swifts are weird
I love swifts. My heart lifts when I spot them in the sky, their screams telling you summer is here. Last Sunday when the flying ants swarmed there were so many in the sky, I was really excited!
They are weird though, as this blogger explains.
Have you ever wondered what swifts do when the weather is really bad?
Mark Cocker explains in the Guardian Nature Diary that,
“faced with the recent 48-hour spell of non-stop rain showers,...[they]... fly right around such wet weather systems and continue to feed while their chicks and partners survive by fasting. Half of Buxton’s swifts could have been flying and feeding over Exeter or Bournemouth.
In short, swifts make their own weather. When the skies clear they head home, bringing a sense of wonder and mystery with them. Sometimes they travel more than 1,800km in rain-avoidance excursions.”
Sadly they’ll be leaving us soon as they start their return journey in mid July, before nights become too cool. Swifts can't roost overnight during the journey, like swallows do, so they travel quickly. One young swift that left its UK nest on 31 July, was found in Madrid on 3 August. By mid-August, most swifts have reached central Africa.
Best to enjoy the sight of them while we can.
Swift information via RSPB
Become An Insect Champion
This week saw the launch of the WildLife Trusts report on reversing the decline of insects and what we can all do to help. Professor Dave Goulson, who wrote the Foreword for the report, commented,
“If we get it right for insects we get it right for everything else. Insects are the canaries in the coal mine – their collapse is an alarm bell that we must not ignore. Action is needed from every section of society – we all need to change this together.”
Read the report here
Myathropa florea in my garden
Don't blame the newts!
In Boris Johnson’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ speech, a couple of weeks ago, in which he announced a major building boom to revive the coronavirus economy, he appeared to imply that the only thing standing between the UK and greatness is newts. “The newt-counting delays in our system are a massive drag on the productivity and prosperity of this country,” he was reported as saying.
Campaigners fear that these comments mean that regulations protecting nature are now in the firing line. Obviously things are much more complicated than Mr Johnson would have us believe and this blog from Greenpeace is typical of the responses to his newt baiting speech.
Finally
One of those flying ants on Sunday took a short break on my hand before flying off in search of some ant action. Rather lovely I hope you agree?
Have a good week and don't forget to count the swifts
Tags for Forum Posts: ., local nature heroes, local nature news, nature notes, queen's wood oaks
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Thanks for the update Alice. Going to start a separate thread on this so people don’t miss it
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Permalink Reply by Patricia Wotton on
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What a fascinating history. I had no idea about this gentleman and really enjoyed finding out about him. I loved the fact that one of his pictures inspired the Swan Vestas design. I also loved the mention that he visited Fetlar Isle in Shetland where I was also privileged to see a snowy owl when I was principal teacher on the islands school in October 2018. Brilliant, thanks (Photo courtesy of Paul Macklam, Fetlar)
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sofetlar.PNG, 1.4 MB
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Permalink Reply by HoL Site Admin on
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The following statement was released by Haringey Council yesterday. Posted bu HoL without comment.
We are aware of, and completely understand, some residents’ concern at the planned removal of four Oak trees in Queen’s Wood. A petition and a campaign has been launched, and lots of questions are being asked. In short, the trees have been identified for removal as part of a subsidence claim against the council on behalf of an insurer of a property in the area. If the council does not remove the trees, we will face costs of at least £270,000.
Here, we set out the background, and offer a statement from Cllr Kirsten Hearn, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability, who says:
I do not want these trees to be cut down.
This is not the first claim from this property. Further subsidence has occurred. Haringey Council has paid for underpinning works to the building to address subsidence. This has not been successful.
In this case, the council are left with two choices: to pay the insurance costs for further underpinning, at a cost we are told of at least £270,000, or cut down the four trees.
The council has a huge hole in its budget due to actions it has taken to protect residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. This follows 10 years of austerity during which council budgets have been slashed.
We simply cannot afford to pay out £270,000 to the homeowner’s insurance company. I am truly sorry, but the trees have to go.
The facts:
Four Oak trees in Queen’s Wood have been identified for removal as part of a substantial subsidence claim by insurers of a property in the area. Given the diameter of the four trees’ stems, we believe them to be relatively young – an estimate of somewhere between 30 and 40 would be a fair assumption.
There had been a plan to remove a fifth, but council officers were able to save the tree, due to its maturity, greater ecological value and further distance away from the relevant property. The claimants’ solicitors have said that they will continue to monitor the property to establish whether removal of the four trees has stabilised the property. We have committed to replacing the four Oak trees this autumn.
The council reviews insurance claims of this nature extensively and engage external advisors and work with independent experts to investigate claims where appropriate. If we can take mitigating actions such as crown reduction, we do so, as we have done in this case (amongst other steps we have taken too, such as underpinning).
We face incurring costs of, at minimum, £270,000 if the trees are not removed now.
We have regularly updated all associated stakeholders, including the Friends of Queen’s Wood group, in the weeks and months leading up to the removal of these four Oak trees.
Haringey is committed to planting more trees – we expect to plant at least 800 by the end of the year – the last thing we want is to take any down. We have gone to great lengths to try and avoid this action.
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"We have committed to replacing the four Oak trees this autumn."
By planting 4 acorns?
A counter-argument in a letter to AXA by
Jeffrey G Duckett B.A., PhD., Cantab., FLS, FZS
Emeritus Professor of Botany, QMUL and research associate NHM,I am dismayed at your response to the request to prevent the felling of 4 mature oaks in Queen’s Wood Highgate.
The instructions for felling appear to be based solely on financial, legal and/or insurance requirements with total disregard for the environment. This tree loss is NOT necessary and I do not believe that the ‘circumstances’ should be allowed win out as this argument is extremely weak. In addition, the suggestion of replanting to replace 100 year old trees is ludicrous.
In any event, felling the 4 trees may not resolve the subsidence problems. In fact, taking an overview of the site, this is very unlikely to do so. It should also be noted that some of the information being circulated is incorrect viz that the trees are around 50 years old when in fact they are mature oak standards over 100 years old with straight trunks and must have grown up in closed ancient woodland.
The request to fell the 4 oaks is based solely on the discovery of oak roots at 105 Wood Vale and takes no account of other vegetation. It should also be noted that the mature oak currently spared the felling lies within the tree-to-damage distances for oaks as does a 5th oak standard next to the road. The site contains numerous trees including holly, hornbeams (probably regrowths from coppicing in the 1930s) wild cherries, a crab apple and younger oaks. Comparing the 80-90 year old hornbeams with the 4 oaks indicates that the latter are much older trees.
Although the 4 oaks are almost certainly contributing to the damage to 105 Wood Vale their removal will probably reduce water demand from trees overall by 30% at best. The risk of further damage from the remaining trees will remain high. The only solution is to clear fell the entire plot thus destroying the ancient woodland ecosystem completely! Even that might not work due to natural seasonal swelling and shrinkage of the clay substratum at 105.
I take serious issue with your statement that the 4 trees are not of such great value as the larger mature oak (probably >250 years old). Together they are vital components of the ancient woodland ecosystem which will be seriously damaged should they be removed.
Two final issues concern the history of the site and the home owners’ insurance. The current owners bought the property some 25 years ago knowing that there had been previous subsidence problems with the house built in 1967. They have also been paying elevated premiums on their AXA consequent on subsidence risks. Subsidence dating from the last (20th) century clearly indicates that there were mature trees next to 105 for some considerable time and signals a lie to statements that they are only 50 years old.
Here it must be underlined that, in full knowledge of mature trees next to 105 and their attendant risks, the builders did not put in adequate foundations. Something is very wrong if the environment and Haringey might suffer from a problem which was entirely not of their making.Thus, I remain vehemently opposed to this proposed felling on grounds of both damage to the urban environment, with preservation of ancient woodland as the top priority, and the likelihood that it will not stop the subsidence. As a professional botanist of over 50 years standing, I am surprised that such a worthy organisation as the Woodland Trust would even countenance such a shabby approach.
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