Stanborough Lakes & Park

Stanborough Lakes & Park, Welwyn Garden City Felling and replacement planting of Lombardy poplars.

Stanborough Lakes & Park opened in 1970. The two car parks were probably planted up with Lombardy poplar shortly after this opening date. The design of the car parks relies on closely planted lines of Lombardy poplar trees to divide up both the north and south car parks into access roads with long bays of parking to either side. In total there are 673 trees planted through both car parks, each tree about 2 metres from the next.

Picture 1. 38 year old Lombardy poplars in the north car park

Lombardy Poplar, Populus nigra Italica, is a native of the Lombardy region of Northern Italy and is one of the fastest growing species of tree. They grow very rapidly in the early years, and there has been a tendency in the past to plant them to produce a quick screen. This has often proved to be ill advised as the trees are not long lived, and loss or breakage can occur sooner than expected as rapid growth is gained at the expense of wood strength. A life span of only 50 years is quite typical. The trees in the south car park were undoubtedly causing concern about 12 years ago as the height of all the trees in this car park were reduced to about 5 metres. In the last 5 years in high winds, branches and in one or two instances whole trees have fallen out of the rows. Clearly a problem was developing and in 2006 an independent tree hazard assessment was commissioned to look at all of the Lombardy poplars.

The report came to the following conclusions;

There is a high risk of stems breaking and causing damage to property or people if nothing is done. This is a high usage site and measures should be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of stem failure in the trees.

This can be achieved by: 1) Felling, 2) Reducing the trees back to where previously cut, at a height of around 5 to 6 metres.

For reduction, it should be noted that the same problems will occur in the future. For safety reasons the trees would need to be reduced regularly every 2 or 3 years.

The Council has considered the recommendations carefully and, in partnership with Finesse Leisure Partnership who manage the site on the Council’s behalf, have come to the decision that the short term solution of reducing all the trees back to 5 and 6 metres high, and from that date onwards recutting every 2-3 years, is a time consuming and unsightly commitment. In preference, the decision has been taken to remove the trees and replant both car parks, re-investing in the landscape by planting a range of trees that will have a longer life span and be more suitable for a well used public car park.

In order to minimise the risk to people and cars, felling must take place before the onset of winter and the likelihood of high winds. Therefore, we propose to fell all the trees in September 2008.

All of the remaining stumps of the Lombardy poplar trees will need to be treated prior to being removed, as this is a species of tree that will regrow vigorously and sucker from the root. We therefore anticipate leaving the treated stumps in situ over the summer of 2009.

Stump removal and cultivation of the ground in both car parks is proposed for Autumn 2009 with re-planting undertaken during the winter season of 2009 – 2010. A mix of trees and hedgerow plants is suggested, the trees to be dominant species with height and stature to make a visual impact in the valley and hedgerow species to offer ground level screening to break up the impact of the large car park in a park land setting. A small number of Lombardy poplar will be replanted in the scheme to recreate the visual statement that they make on the Welwyn Garden City skyline.

The planting will consist of a range of mainly native species selected from the following list of species. Betula nigra – river birch Ulmus Princeton – a large elm resistant to dutch elm disease Corylus avellana – hazel Carpinus betulus – hornbeam Acer campestre – field maple Quercus ilex - evergreen oak Crataegus monogyna – hawthorn Fraxinus excelsior – common ash

It may be necessary to vary this list at the time of planting, depending upon availability and the planting size required.

Your views on this work are welcome and should you have any concerns, a public meeting will be held at Stanborough Lakes at 6.30pm on Thursday August 7th 2008 (meet in the South (Watersports) Car Park) so that you can see the issue first hand and talk through the proposals with us.

If you cannot attend the meeting but would still like to make comments then please do so by not later than Friday 8th August by e-mail to “[email protected]” or by writing to Finesse Leisure Partnership, 4th Floor, Campus West, Welwyn Garden City AL8 6BX