Tree blunder

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 3

Tree blunder

PA Nelson A Nelson City Council reserve will never be the same after a contractor with a chainsaw made a mistake. At least nine big kanuka trees, all over 50 years old, were chopped down on Monday on the city’s Waterhouse Street reserve. A bulldozer was then brought on to the reserve to drag the trees away. The mistake has savaged a small pocket of regenerating native bush on the reserve. Undergrowth has been crushed, and the reserve’s birdlife — fantails and kingfishers — have had a large piece of habitat destroyed.

The first indication that anything had gone wrong

at the reserve was about 11 a.m., when a neighbour called the City Council to say he had tried to stop workers cutting the trees down.

The council’s parks overseer, Mr Peter Coubrough, said he found the contractors clearing trees about 10m inside the reserve.

They were supposed to be clearing trees on private land further up the gully, so a new subdivision could be developed, he said.

The cost of the damage is still being assessed, but the council’s parks and recreation committee chairman, Mr Trevor Horne, said he expected the contractor would have to pay replacement costs and compensation.