Charter for trees

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33870, 16 June 1975, Page 22

Charter for trees

The Christchurch Civic Trust wants local authorities to do more to protect trees.

In its latest newsletter, it gives examples of action taken overseas and suggests local bodies here follow suit.

The trust says that in Sydney’s Ku-ring-gai Municipality it is an offence to ring-bark, cut down, top, remove, injure or in any way destroy any tree higher than 12 feet or any branch exceeding 10 feet in diameter.

It is also an offence to heap rocks, soil or other material against the trunk of a tree or to alter the level of soil in which a tree is growing. Further, it is an offence to all to grow on any , tree a

vine or creeper which may damage or kill that tree.

The trust says this tree preservation order is part of the New South Wales model planning code. In Canberra, says the trust, the authorities go even further and give three trees and a variety of shrubs to each new home owner laying out a garden.

The trust says the city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, in California. has. among other things, provisions to make service stations and used car lots provide and maintain landscaping along 80 per cent of their street frontages. Similar requirements, with varying percentages, apply to car parks, commercial premises, hotels, motels and apartments.