New Tree Replanting Ratio Negotiated by Abundance London |
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Mature plane removed for Cycleway 9 to be replaced by 14 saplings
February 14, 2023 When Transport for London (TfL) and Hounslow Council removed a mature plane tree to make way for another upgrade to Cycleway 9 in December 2021, they committed to replace it by planting just one new tree. However, local guerrilla gardening voluntary group, Abundance London lobbied them to make the replacement on the basis of a calculation known as CAVAT - Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees. This formulation assigns a monetary value to urban trees and uses trunk girth, canopy size, health and age of trees to calculate a reasonable replacement. The lost tree was around a century old and Abundance London were advised by the local National Park City co-ordinator that a like for like replacement based on CAVAT would require the planting of 40 new trees. Eventually an agreement was reached that 14 new plane trees would be planted as near as possible to the lost tree. It was decided to replant plane trees to match the existing tree stock on Chiswick High Road. Six trees were planted in December 2022, and Hounslow Council arboriculturists identified further sites for the remainder. According to Karen Liebreich of Abundance London, the ground under Chiswick's pavements very congested with underground cables and other facilities, so several trial pits had to be dug before successful sites could be found allowing the remaining trees to be planted this week.
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