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I shuddered when I read the title of this post.
We live in a nice really leafy suburb, but new neighbours moved in and last week they hired "Treesbgone" and started destroying most of the trees facing us across a gully (after the 2009 fires, most councils allow owners to remove trees within 2 to 4 meters of the fence and 10m of the house without a permit). They have gotten rid of about 30 trees so far, and destroyed the nice sanctuary my wife had in her Orchid house at the back of the property. We and our other neighbours are mystified - why move into a leafy suburb, buy a leafy block, then start mangling it? There are plenty of other blocks with less trees in the area.
By way of contrast, the neighbours on the other side of us wanted to remove 6 dead trees, they hired an arborist to do an assessment and write a report for council, and then it became a nightmare - the initial council requirements were that they had to get a surveyor to measure precisely where the trees were, and have a biodiversity impact assessment made by someone qualified.
By further way of contast, on my brother's property (in City of Greater Dandenong), in order to remove any tree - even one that he has planted - he requires a permit, part of which requires an Aboriginal Elder to come along and verify that there is nothing sacred about the tree.
Anyhow, as my new neighbours want to destroy their trees and have a nice view of my trees, I have been busy the last few days putting up a temporary privacy screen - consisting of iron stakes planted into the ground, to which I have attached rusty corrugated iron sheets of various sizes. It looks disgusting (but can't be seen from our house). Welcome to shanty town.
Regards,
Renato
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