Residents of St. Petersburg will be banned from drying clothes on trees: environmentalists explained the reasons

The authorities of St. Petersburg have published a draft resolution on the treatment of green spaces, which prohibits city residents from doing previously quite familiar actions with trees – for example, drying clothes on them and hanging hammocks. In addition, now at the legislative level it will be forbidden to extract sap from birches. “MK” found out from experts in green spaces how logical these bans are and whether there is an excess (literally) of sticks here?

Now the townspeople will not sing: “And the Motherland generously gave me birch sap, birch sap …”. In addition to the ban on extracting birch sap and hanging swings on living trees, the bill vetoed damage to the bark with inscriptions with a knife (which, however, well-bred parents had forbidden children before), as well as storage among green spaces of materials and structures that, in the opinion of lawmakers can harm trees. In addition, residents will be prohibited from dumping snow from the roofs of houses if they do not protect the bushes located under them in advance. Even announcements can no longer be pasted on trees – in a word, green spaces will be surrounded by such care that some people never even dreamed of.

For such crimes, citizens will be fined in the amount of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles, officials will be fined 5,000 to 30,000 rubles, and companies and organizations will be charged 50,000 to 500,000 rubles for such violations.

Now the document is under anti-corruption expertise, it should come into force 10 days after signing by the governor, and partially from January 1, 2023.

“MK” asked the head of the forestry department of Greenpeace Alexei Yaroshenko for an opinion on this matter.

– About the fact that birch sap cannot be extracted, since it hurts birches, it seems that it has been known for so long. Wasn’t there such a ban?

“There was no ban, but there were federal rules on how to mine it, with rather strict restrictions,” Aleksey Yaroshenko explained to MK. – Well, that means that St. Petersburg decided to introduce such a ban at home. In general, this is a logical prohibition, because, of course, it is harmful for a tree. When people extract juice, in any case, a hole is formed, which becomes a channel for the penetration of various infections, wood-destroying fungi. They usually do it with a drill, and sometimes with an ax. Moreover, no matter what size holes, the infection can still get.

Therefore, it seems to me that such prohibitions are needed where there is little forest and where it is especially valuable, that is, within the city. And for rural areas, perhaps, it would be superfluous.

– And what should lovers of birch sap do now?

– You can buy it in stores. On an industrial scale, it is harvested only in areas that are reserved for felling. And certainly within the city it is not necessary for people to do this themselves.

“But can ropes harm trunks when people hang laundry on them?” (We know that not only in villages, but also in cities, this is practiced, if not in the center, then in hidden nooks and crannies).

“That can be a problem too. If a tree is pulled like this for several years – even with a rope, not to mention wire, then a constriction is formed. And it is growing and expanding. And he doesn’t have much power. This disrupts the development of all living tissues of the trunk, since the layer of living cells under the bark is very thin. And plus, if this is a load on a relatively thin tree during the period of its active growth, then living tissue is also damaged. Therefore, this ban is justified for the city. In any case, this is not such nonsense as with deadwood – I mean that in our country the collection of dry sticks in the forest by people in the forest is regulated by federal law. Throughout the history of human civilization, people have been collecting dry sticks in the forest…

In general, in my opinion, when there are too many prohibitions and rules, they stop working because of this. Our forest legislation is so extensive (several thousand pages of various rules) that no normal person can keep so much in his head. After all, a person will not consult with a lawyer before each trip to the forest, what is possible in the forest and what is not.

Meanwhile, this news gave the townspeople a reason to compete in wit: “Well, that’s it, life has lost its meaning if it is now forbidden to cut out inscriptions on birches”, “And specially trained squirrels will monitor the implementation of the law!”, St. Petersburg residents leave joking comments.

There are also those who express dissatisfaction with the new bans: “Now birch sap will rise sharply in price, and its production and sale will go into the shadows”, “In fact, according to marks and inscriptions on trees, people navigate in the forest or in an unfamiliar area – at the present time it can be very relevant at any moment.”