Environment
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BARNET: Trees cut down in 'environmental crime'
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| Hundreds of trees have been cut down at Glebelands nature reserve |
Hundreds of trees in a Barnet nature reserve were cut down last summer in what has been branded an "environmental crime".
Around 500 trees on the Glebeland Nature Reserve, in Finchley, were cut down and shredded into chippings by tree surgeons, according to volunteer conservationst Dr Oliver Natelson, who spends his weekends maintaining the reserve.
Dr Natelson discovered the damage in October last year. He immediately began a survey and has submitted a report to the council based on its findings.
"Everybody who helped me with the survey is shocked at the devastation," he said. "It's generations of trees that are 50, 60 years old and it's absolutely catastrophic."
"There were also some smaller trees that were cut to about chest height and had all of their branches removed. They're just stumps now.The large canopy trees were cut down to the ground.
"I've surveyed the site completely and there was a massive area stripped of vegetation. What was in seed is now coming up but there are very, very few trees."
The site is one of only five sites designated as local nature reserves by the council.
It is home to species including the Slow Worm, which looks like a snake but is in fact a legless lizzard, and the Great Crested Newt, both of which are dwindling in number.
The trees stood along the border of the North Circular, where the reserve begins, and Dr Natelson says they formed a natural barrier to noise, pollution and rubbish that now drifts in off the busy A-road and threaten to damage the ecosystem.
"There are huge numbers of plastic bags blowing in to the area now," he said. "Some marked 'biohazard' that could have needles or blood or anything in them."
A council spokesman said an unspecified number of trees had been removed because they overhung the North Circular and posed a danger to traffic.
He added: "Oaks and other trees that were found to be stable were left untouched and the trees that were identified as being potential risks were either felled or pollarded. No work was carried out in the woodland itself, just on the roadside trees."
But Darren Johnson, the leader of the Green party in the Greater London Assembly, visited the site with other members of his party last Friday and described it as an environmental crime.
"In the heart of a really important nature reserve in ancient woodland like this no other way to described it," he said.
"It's really sad to see all these beautiful trees that have been chopped down. We really need that thick line of tree cover to protect the wildlife from noise and pollution."
9:32am Wednesday 23rd April 2008
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