Chch tree-care praised

Press, 29 May 1978, Page 4

Chch tree-care praised

The Christchurch City Council has set a tree-care example for the rest of New Zealand through its protection policies and advice to homeowners, according to the Tree Society of New Zealand. Canterbury residents had a record of putting trees in a featureless landscape, said the society’s president (Mr J. H. Hogan), “while in the North Island the record is rather one of continuous defoliation, and in some areas contemptuous

indifference to rapid regrowth in favourable climate and soils.” The Christchurch council deserved a public compliment for protection ordinances “at least equal to the best adopted by any other New Zealand council,” he said. In addition, the council had gone “much further than other councils in providing encouraging and helpful information for the public.” A recent publication by the council’s parks and planning departments, on

sale at 50c, described and illustrated simply and clearly what every gardener, homeowner, and treelover needed to know about planting, preservation, and care, Mr Hogan said. It also included rules for safeguarding trees on land development sites. “The use of this material will certainly prevent many of the mistakes, failures, and discouragements which disfigure so much of New Zealand’s urban landscape,” Mr Hogan said.