Guest Blog from Clarence

Keeping a community tidy and presentable is a challenge not only the local government faces, but the average individual as well. Trees are a major part of the landscape with a variety of purposes, from providing a barrier against the elements for the unseeming passerby, to being an aesthetic ornament for the locality. Let’s face it – amidst the bleak outline of the urban hustle and bustle, it is quite refreshing to be greeted by lush greenery that reminds us that we are organic, and some disconnect from the present is important.

However, caring for trees isn’t just a simple process of plant and forget. There is a lot of consideration involved, mainly on the location it is situated.

Take for example, a London Plane tree, a native species in the UK; a great selection for a pollutant controller in congested areas. It has a sturdy build which can buffer high winds, and is highly resistant to air pollution brought on by vehicles and industrial settings. But with its merits comes its downsides: its reproduction process is somewhat a nuisance to locals. Dispersion of seeds and the follicles that its juvenile leaves shed regularly, is a cause of breathing inconvenience upon inhalation, and can cause further complications for people with breathing-related ailments. Now, a level of control is needed, someone or something to regulate the situation at hand. This is where tree surgery comes in. But what exactly is it? Do these trees need an appendectomy? Do they even have the need for a bypass?
 
Before you lose yourself further in the confusion, tree surgery is somewhat close as to what human or animal surgery is. Loosely put, it is the profession of taking care of a tree by a sort of operation and repair of a damaged specimen, preventing decay and promoting preservation of the tree. Of course there are specifics underneath this broad field, but that’s for another time.

What do you call someone who does surgery? A surgeon of course, and in this case, a tree surgeon. Tree surgeons provide services like canopy raising, directional shaping, stump removal, and tree felling amongst others. From our previous problem, which is the excessive shedding of hairs of the young London plane tree leaves, we can have a tree surgeon perform pruning on the specimen, with the surgeon discerning on which branch systems to remove to reduce the rapid growth of new leaves. This not only benefits the folk that are in the immediate area of the tree from the threat of inhaling bronchial irritants, but to the amount of debris it gives off as well, making the maintenance of cleanliness around the area an easier task to perform.