In the regional center, work has begun on the improvement and reconstruction of individual landscape elements on the territory of the Civil War Heroes Park. In addition to replacing paving slabs, repairing benches and other things, workers planned to demolish more than a hundred dangerous, diseased and old trees. Some residents of Kursk found this initiative of the authorities to be disastrous for the urban environment. A petition is circulating online in support of a ban on cutting down parkland.
Let’s look at how things really are in the following story.
“Mutilation, destruction of parks and squares of Kursk, under the guise of reconstruction.” This is how the author of an online petition against cutting down old trees in natural recreational areas of the city spoke about the start of improvement work. In particular, the park, popularly nicknamed “Borodino”. Kuryanin gives dubious examples of supposedly unjustified cutting down of part of green spaces. However, we note that earlier, the Kursk authorities outlined a plan for the upcoming work, including cutting down certain trees, which were numbered using a special method. A total of 104 trees, recognized as fading or unsafe, are subject to demolition. Our film crew was not lazy and went to the designated place to see for themselves how things were going with the said vegetation. And it turned out that trees with numbers are indeed not in the best shape, at first glance. By what principle are drying trunks identified? Expert opinion:
Mikhail Kuznetsov, arborist
“The question here is ambiguous, because each tree must be approached objectively, as they say, like a doctor. A doctor cannot look at 100 people and say, “You are sick, but you are not sick. Trees are sick, affected by tinder fungi. Accordingly, his mycelium is spread inside the wood. The wood is fragile. This tree is considered emergency. There will be a strong wind and it will fall over.”
Experts also look at the number of dry branches. Not fouling, but so-called. “skeletal”. Especially in the crowns. The presence of hollows is also noteworthy. The plant seems to be completely covered with greenery, but irreversible processes occur inside the trunk, leading to withering. And it doesn’t matter where it grows. Hence it is strange that no one asks the question of the advisability of sawing branches, or completely removing dead wood from their garden plot.
Mikhail Kuznetsov, arborist
“Of course, we take accident rates into account first. Well, that is, they approach a tree and look at what kind of crown it has: is it equilateral, blooms profusely, or does it have an abundant crown, good leaf formation.”
The tree expert notes that Kursk parks are quite old, even by the standards of the life cycle of trees. Their laying took place a very long time ago. And all sorts of natural and anthropogenic factors, naturally, cause them this or that harm, and the trees begin to dry out. And there were plenty of them in the “Heroes of the Civil War” park. They must be uprooted. With further planting of young shoots in their place.
Mikhail Kuznetsov, arborist
“Plus, our climate is apparently changing; a lot of elms have dried up in the Kursk region. This is just “trouble-trouble.” And maybe some elm trees that are drying out will also be removed.”
Thus, according to ecologists, Kursk spruce plantations also have a number of problems. They are often affected by “gray rot”, causing a disease of the tree’s root system – Alternaria. In the form of mycelium growths. The most common cause of the disease: severe thickening of plantings and poor ventilation of the crowns. As a preventive measure, the plantings are thinned out, the affected branches are removed, and the sections are treated with oil paint, drying oil or copper sulfate solution. Conclusion: cutting down trunks in forested areas of Kursk is largely justified. Both in terms of accidents and in terms of updating the green fund of the capital of the Nightingale region.
