Gardening identity Sophie Thomson blames a ‘largely apathetic council’ on destruction of gum trees at Mt Barker
Sophie Thomson has joined a growing outcry over the shock felling of giant river red gums in her district but the Mt Barker mayor says her council is passionate about trees.
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Mount Barker mayor Ann Ferguson has asked how much information her council must “spoon feed” ratepayers while countering an outcry over her council’s shock felling of four giant gum trees.
Her ratepayers including Sunday Mail gardening columnist Sophie Thomson have condemned the council on social media for sacrificing centuries-old river red gums this week for a regional sports hub on a 20ha site on the outskirts of Mt Barker.
The region’s ratepayers’ association, which is on a consultative committee for the $35 million sports investment, said it had opposed the trees’ removal but only found out via social media that they were being cut down.
Contractors cut three of the trees at their base, effectively killing them, and craned them into huge holes at a new location at the entrance to the proposed sports hub in a bid to safeguard existing nesting hollows.
The trunk of a fourth tree has been cut up and will be scattered across the site.
Ms Thomson said she was traumatised after watching the trees being felled.
“These trees predate us and have more right to be there than us,” she said. “These trees have been sacrificed but let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
She said the council’s arborist Chris Lawry had fought to keep the trees and said on her Facebook page that the decision to remove them was ultimately due to the “inflexibility” of project managers and a “largely apathetic council”.
Ms Ferguson said removing the trees was the only option to allow for new sportsfields and that relocating three gums to a new location was the best of a bad situation.
“We are passionate about our trees, people come to Mt Barker for the tree change but people who come to Mt Barker also want recreational facilities … sometimes we have to do things that hurt us too,” she said.
“We have thousands of residents moving to the area who are screaming for infrastructure and want sporting facilities.
“I know the (relocated) trees will die but they will be habitat, they just weren’t put out to dry for furniture for the council.”
When asked if the council could have done more to warn people of the impending work, given likely public backlash, Ms Ferguson said: “How much spoon feeding do you need to do?”
She did not think the community had been blindsided by the trees’ removal.
“It went through council, every elected member voted on it,” she said. “(Ratepayers) can read the agendas and find out what is going on.”
The council’s assessment panel approved the sports hub project, including tree removal, last September.
The project was released for community consultation but only one person made a representation to the council’s assessment panel voicing their concerns.
The council posted pictures of the trees’ removal on its social media account yesterday afternoon after the last of the gums had been removed, hours after residents had taken to social media condemning it.
“Hundreds of new trees will also be planted on the current site to enrich the beauty, biodiversity and appeal of the open community space and create a natural and diverse corridor that was once paddocks,” the council said.
Mt Barker & District Residents' Association president Dianne van Eck said her group, part of a sports hub consultative committee, had argued for the trees’ retention.
“I did not know they were going to be removed yesterday and I didn’t know they were going to be chopped at the base and relocated – the whole thing is a farce,” she said.
“They (the council) should have tried harder to save these trees … they have shown no credibility over this.”
Mr Lawry told ABC 891 this morning that passers-by of the site had a “right to be outraged” by the trees’ removal.
“We fought as hard as we could … but in this situation there was just no way to keep the trees,” he said.
The sports hub will feature two football ovals able to host SANFL and AFL games, four soccer pitches, eight netball courts, six tennis courts and associated clubrooms and function space.