Wanstead Climate Action is delighted to welcome back Peter Marshall, Redbridge’s principal ‘tree officer’, or to give him his full title, Arboricultural and Horticultural Manager. Peter has kindly agreed to give a presentation and answer questions from residents at our 19 Jan meeting, about issues such improving tree care and survival rates and reducing pesticide use on public land. (The group later also no doubt be discussing issues such as local biodiversity policy as our petition progresses through the council.)
Please do come on Monday evening to Wanstead House Community Centre (Redbridge Room, downstairs) and tell friends to what will undoubtedly be an informative and useful talk. We are intending there to be a video link for those unable to attend in person – please email us for details.
Peter has also written a concise article in advance of the meeting for Wanstead Village Directory. We had polled to find out what WCA members were most interested in, which included aftercare of planting new trees and why so many new trees had apparently died. There were also questions that are outside the remit of the arboricultural and horticultural team, such as about Tree Protection Orders. They do look after 40,000 trees, tracking them all on a database, without having to cover those on private land!
Our chair, Karen, will introduce and facilitate the question. A couple of questions I’d like to ask, as someone who knows little about trees:
- How is climate change affecting the choice and survival rate of different species? We blogged during the 2022 heatwave that young rowans and hawthorns in our wildlife hedge, and Redbridge’s distinctive sweet chestnuts, were particularly suffering and might not be viable soon.
- I’ve heard the (very) mature sweet chestnut trees in the WVD photo called ‘The Three Sisters’. Anyone else? Do they predate the 18th century Wanstead House?
- Really we may want to be assured the contractors know what they’re doing!
Watch out for details of our February meeting, which is likely to be postponed to 23 Feb because of half-term, and feature climate warnings from the National Emergency Briefing.
Wanstead Climate Action 