Green Flags fly but trees still die, warns leading local arborist

Young trees in Clissold Park: planting dates around 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively (left to right). Photos: Russell Miller

As Hackney Council celebrates yet more Green Flag Awards for parks, trees in those very parks continue to die from damage and neglect.

As with so many bureaucratic, league table type systems, Green Flag Awards have become a misleading indicator of ‘success’. True, parks in Hackney have improved in many respects; new toilets, signs, benches, path surfacing, litter bins, etc. The fact that these things have happened is in part due to the Green Flag scheme, or at least to elected councillors’ desire for such awards. However, as so often these days, the success hides many problems. Indeed, since Hackney has so many Green Flag parks, most councillors and council officers live in blissful ignorance of these problems.

As a tree enthusiast, I am very sad and angry that there are chestnuts dying from mower damage and newly planted trees dying from neglect. Victorian trees over 100 years old deserve much better than to be mowed and damaged during grass cutting or construction. That they then die from disease 10 or 20 years later is a tragic subtlety lost on most, including apparently Green Flag judges. It is also a disgrace for which park managers and councillors should be ashamed.

Then take the little trees in these photos. Dead trees that were planted in Clissold Park. These trees died because no one bothered to water them after they were planted. A basic and simple task that when ignored is guaranteed to result in the wasted time, energy and money of planting the trees in the first place. Rocket science it ain’t.

But what is really shocking is that these trees were in Hackney’s prestige Green Flag Clissold Park. Worse, they were planted as memorials for someone. Neglecting memorial trees in your best park really shows all is not well.

Shocked? Well, what if I told you that the third tree was the replacement for the second tree, which was a replacement for the first tree, that died of neglect? A dead tree that replaced a dead tree, that replaced a dead tree. And there are, right now, dead and dying trees in many, if not most of Hackney’s major parks.

So, yes, we have lots of Green Flag parks. We also have lots of dead and dying trees. Old trees dying from damage and disregard, young trees dying for want of some water. Fortunately we also have dedicated tree carers who plant, protect and water trees in parks. Only we water what we plant. Sometimes we try and save those the Council neglects but we can’t do it all on our own.