Named blunders in the care of city trees: the Russians expressed dissatisfaction

Russia is actively campaigning for winter tree pruning. Public utilities with garden shears and chainsaws have already walked through many yards, introducing residents into confusion. Some townspeople are ready to defend each tree with their breasts, while others, on the contrary, ask to cut down more. Nevertheless, pruning crowns is regulated by the rules. How to do this operation “according to science”, who is responsible for green spaces and what citizens themselves can do – found out “MK”.

“I was waiting for pruning with joy, it’s a pity that they didn’t cut down the trees at all,” Tatyana, a resident of Tver, told MK. – The fact is that I live on the ground floor, we have an eternal shadow. In addition, in our yard, mostly poplars: when two years ago there was a lot of fluff, we were suffocating, and in all apartments, on all balconies there was this poplar.

Opponents of pruning say that after filing most of the branches, the trees look unaesthetic – “like bare poles” – and in many cases simply die, having lost their crown. From the near-scientific plane, the discussion in chats most often turns to politics and personalities: the topic of trees, as proven by numerous surveys of urbanists and sociologists, is one of the most controversial. Because if for some, mostly residents of the first floors, trees are a significant inconvenience, then for others the “green lungs of the city” are an absolute value.

“This is one of those topics where decisions should be made by professionals, and society needs education,” said Dmitry Zvonka, tree care specialist, arborist, to MK. – For example, it is obvious to specialists that in large Russian cities, no matter how paradoxical it sounds to an ordinary person, there are many extra trees. For example, over the past decades, a huge number of self-sowing and unauthorized plantings have appeared outside the plan and SNiPs. Including – in the immediate vicinity of houses, which creates a shadow and harms residents. However, these trees are the property of Russian cities and it is illegal to cut them down.

Most often, the optimal distance between large trees in an urban environment is 15-25 meters (from houses to trees – the same), says the interlocutor of MK. The exception is forest parks and other natural areas. This is how you can achieve the full development of the crown; in addition, with such tree planting, the city can afford to serve everyone with high quality. This approach is used, for example, in Potsdam, Germany, which is considered one of the exemplary cities in terms of maintaining green spaces.

Pruning trees, according to the arborist, should take place precisely in the cold season. This is justified by the fact that in winter the operation is less traumatic for the tree. And the pruning of each street tree should be repeated at least once every 2-3 years. We also need constant monitoring for accidents: sometimes a tree can be made harmless with pruning, sometimes it has to be cut down completely.

– In principle, any pruning causes some harm to the tree, – says the expert. – But the so-called anti-aging pruning is especially risky. In many countries of the world, this method is considered unethical and usually leads to the fact that trees without annual maintenance become emergency.

The fact is that the saw cut of thick branches (more than 5 cm in diameter) creates foci of infection in the tree, through the places of saw cuts, rot penetrates into the trunk, as a result of which the tree becomes brittle. The way out is to cut only thin branches and do rejuvenating pruning more than once every 3-4 years, as sometimes happens in Russian regions, but annually. Such pruning, for example, is done according to the regulations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.

Nevertheless, the regulations for working with trees need serious improvement, it is necessary to fix the basic rules for pruning in them, the arborist says. In the meantime, violations of technology are possible, and it is far from a fact that they violate regulatory documents.

It happens that you have to do pruning in a special way so that the tree dies as quickly as possible, public utilities admit. The fact is that there are, in fact, emergency trees that cannot yet be recognized as such, there are not enough criteria. But experts see that they are about to fall on cars or, God forbid, on people. Therefore, they cut it so that in a year or two the tree dies, you can easily get a logging ticket for it. And this is the lesser of evils: everyone is alive, except for the tree, and it was already bad.

Thus, the current regulations for the treatment of green spaces in Russia do not seem to suit anyone completely: neither utilities, nor arborists, nor residents. However, in order to change them to science-based ones, one would have to refute the idea of ​​the trees of yards and streets as “the green lungs of the city”. They are important, experts say, primarily not for the regeneration of oxygen, but for other reasons – for shade, strengthening the soil, natural conditioning. But for all these functions, what is more important is not “more” trees, but “better”. But will people agree to this?