I was driving from Inverell to Glen Innes, just after 2120 hrs, and caught up to one of the storms that lashed the State last night.
The Gwydir Hwy was littered with tree bark for some miles, bits of trees and in three cases by fallen trees.
Two of the trees had been run over by the semi-trailers that I passed that were heading towards Inverell (at slow speed, no one was going over 70 kph, and I was down to 50 a lot of the time).
One tree, a dead one, had fallen across both lanes and it was disguised by fallen bark.
I saw it at the last minute, braked, and bumped over the top section which fortunately was small in diametre; no damage.

The question that I ask, and I've asked it before (and in relevant places), is: why are trees that are tall enough to fall onto a roadway not removed or at he least, cut down to a safe height?
Most trees if cut down to a tall stump will shoot out branches (coppice) so the tree is not lost but road and overall safety is improved.

like with bushfires I suspect the worship of nature prevents people from applying commonsense.

Yes Is Mise, those trees are killers.

I can only wonder how many have died when fleeing a bushfire in a vehicle, only to be trapped by a tree fallen across narrow country roads.

They provide a camouflaged hiding place for suicidal Kangaroos to sit to bound out in front of cars, far too late for drivers to miss them. One of our important local roads is best avoided at night, due to this problem.

They also make overtaking more dangerous, as the prolific growth of saplings watered by the run off of roads reduce visibility, & develop into dangerous killers should driver leave the road.

I also don't like your stump idea. Stumps near the road are even worse killers, as they are often hidden by brush. The coppice grown new trunks are poorly attached to the parent stump, & are much more likely to be blown off the original stump as they get large, with a canopy to catch the wind.

I do agree no tree has any place with in it's height of any road.

We have some great suggestions for environmental vandalism here. Is Mise if your were in your Sherman tank at the time you could have blasted your way through.

//We have some great suggestions for environmental vandalism here.//

Oh give it a rest you disingenuous prick. You've already amply demonstrated that you don't actually give about the environment and it's painfully obvious that you're just being contrary because Is Mise started the thread.

Hey, take it easy Toni, don't you realise that the left are the new scourges of the uninformed voters !

Paul has got to get in some practise and where better to get started than on OLO ?

On the east of Glen Innes is Washpool Gibraltar Park on the cliff edge. Drove up the escarpment there during a storm and the wind was twisting tall trees like helicopters and they came down onto the road.I stopped to try to clear the steep downhill lane but they fell too fast and close. But if they are all removed the hillside is gone....

Actually nick that is quite wrong. The story that trees stop erosion is one of the greatest furphies propagated by the green blob.

I am a great believer in the right number of trees in other than broad acre cropping paddocks. But too many merely render the land useless to man & beast. Land kept to low tree density by aboriginal fire stick was very productive, & is a good result to aim for in grazing, or simply beautiful countryside.

Over clearing makes land less productive in both very hot conditions & in frosty conditions, but no where as unproductive as the scrub promoted by those green blob activists.

On river banks it is even more important to minimise large trees. Every one of them will reach a stage where their resistance to flood water flow will mean they & the ground they grow on will be ripped out, & dispatched down river.

Removing the trees, battering the bank to a 45 degree angle, planting grasses such as Rhodes, then keeping stock off them will ensure no bank erosion. Trees will cause much erosion. I am quite happy to show anyone interested, proof of this in my local area.

It may be complicated by land clearing which increases run-off.
The Murray was easily navigable until river trees were cut for fuel and trunks fell in.( see sentence 1).
However , the Park near Glen Innes has an earth-cliff ( where Blue Mountains have granite , to suit trendy $1million dream homes). Wouldn't like to drive the roller coaster mud-slide up the mountain with storm rains lubricating the tar.

Just as a matter of interest, I was in the Coachman Coffee Lounge, in Tenterfield today having one of their excellent fish, chips and salad lunches when the subject turned to the recent storms.
The waitress told us that a customer, whom she named (but it meant nothing to me, not being a local); said customer had stopped to give way to a light truck and before the ruck could move a tree fell on it, fortunately without hurting anyone.

One never knows!!

Was it a Peppermint tree ? Did the truck have a chainsaw in it ?
"Conservation Status The New England Peppermint (Eucalyptus nova-anglica) Grassy Woodlands ecological community is listed as critically endangered. . Much of the ecological community’s known extent in New South Wales lies in the New England Tablelands Bioregion, between Tenterfield and Armidale, although its occurrence extends to the southern boundary of the bioregion..
Notify relevant organisations of roadside, rail and power easement locations that should be protected during construction and maintenance activities."

Roadside vegetation plays an important role in the conservation of Western Australia’s plants and animals. In heavily cleared landscapes, the vegetation in the road reserve acts as a wildlife highway, enabling animal movement between large patches of bush. It also provides essential habitat. In some areas rare animals, such as the Carnaby’s cockatoo, breed in the hollows of roadside trees. In addition, more than 50 per cent of threatened plants have at least one population on a roadside, and some species depend on roadside vegetation for their continued existence.

Phebalium bifidum can grow into a bush 1.5 metres high, however it is often seen as a small erect plant around 30-60 cm tall.. Only a few hundred of these plants are known to exist, mostly on road reserve and private property. The Capertee Valley is the only place in the world that this plant is found. The threats to this species include roadside management activities and clearing.

ROADSIDE AND CORRIDOR PROTECTION 1.0 Statement of nature and significance of vegetation to be protected Remnant vegetation along roadsides and within roadside corridors is significant for the conservation and recreation values it provides. Roadsides and areas within roadside corridors often contain trees, shrubs and native grasses which have largely disappeared from nearby land.

Is Mise, they blew a hole in the Adler 7 shot, shotgun yesterday, giving it a Category D classification. One of the Two Bobs. was on the 7.30 report threatening retaliatory action at the next election.
Save it for another day, when we clash over guns again.

Toni, be careful what you post, other children might be reading, and you don't need to be "oh so serious", lighten up with your choice of words and the use of @%$ symbols to get around the profanity rules. I like Is Mise, we often have little talks, as we have now over a number of years. Anyway he is a big boy and does a great job at defending himself when need be.

Paul,

A good decision on the Adler, it paves the way for the reclassification of 5 shot pump action and 5 shot semi-autos.

Mick,

All that needs to be done to maintain the road corridors viability as a sanctuary/repository is to increase its width by land resumption and then remove the dangerous trees or coppice them.
If the trees were regularly coppiced then there would be no problem and there would be lots of cheap firewood.

yes but no but gum trees don't coppice usually. The big worry is roos and a pair of Adler on the roof with swivel-mount is the solution.

Nick,

"In my travels to Morocco, I have seen quite clearly the value of coppicing, where there are eucalyptus trees coppiced about every five years for firewood, simple structures and formwork props for construction, just to name a few uses.

Eucalyptus oil that we all know so well comes from a coppice system. In my childhood my father cut and distilled eucalyptus oil in a four year coppice rotation — the same as his father and his father did, so you can see how perpetual this system is....."

http://permaculturenews.org/2013/02/13/managing-a-coppiced-eucalypt-forest/

You're right , come to think of it. We live in a dry spot where cut trees don't sucker but yeah normally they do.

Nick,

I spent some time in the mountain country around Hill End and along the Turon River, ring barking, seedling digging and sucker bashing.
It's a reasonable rainfall area and the 'barked trees would shoot profusely, especially on the river side slopes.

Around here Spotted gum, Stringybark, Ironbark & the local SE Queensland Red gum all coppice profusely, but don't stand near one, [or let your favourite horse] after a storm once the new trunks have reached 300mm or above.

In a storm, or particularly the day after a storm those new trunks drop off very easily

Hi Is Mise,

What you say about trees and roadsides is true, one problem is the cost, is it for local government, state, federal. In that third world country over the ditch, I was surprised when traveling around the South Island, the amount of work done to maintain roadsides, a wide grassy verge, lots of blokes on tractors out nowhere keeping them trim and neat. They are very green with high rainfall on volcanic soil, the roads there are very good, until they have an earthquake. Having said that, one time travailing up north from Auckland to Northland, on a very wet and rainy night, normally a trip that takes about 3 hours, took us 7 with the amount of fallen pines that had to be removed from the road, about 4 while we were going through. Stop for an hour at a time whilst an emergency crew get through with chainsaws at the ready to deal with the problem. I said why do they plant those pines so close to the roadside, one meter away, heavy rain undermines them and they come toppling down, sometimes killing people.

p/s I hate those cut down gums when they grow all those suckers, they do look ugly, don't you agree.

It could be a similar story to new power lines which must have 10m clear either side. Old lines can have tops lopped on private property. So our neighbour is developing house-blocks along our fence and 20m is being cleared for driveway. The main road to town has trees in gutters next to the tar.

About 10 years ago someone published a peer reviewed study which showed that there are about 25% more trees in Oz today than at white settlement The cessation of aboriginal fire stick burning has seen dramatic thickening of trees & scrub. Much of the open parkland they'd developed is now thick scrub, useless to man or beast. This study was disappeared very quickly, it was preaching from the wrong book

Over 24 years I have watched a neighbour's 5000 acre paddock go from open woodland pasture to about 40% woody weed thicket. He has given up burning every 4 years, due to complaints from encroaching tree change blocks, & in today's market it can no longer earn the cost of maintaining it with labour. The greenies have won.

On my ex turf farm 20 acres I have planted about 50 trees, & let a similar number of bird plantings grow. I would have left many more if some fool councillors had not enacted some tree perseveration bylaws. If I could simply choose to remove any tree on my own property at will, it would be some hundreds, with later removal of the less suitably placed or less well grown if still possible.

The greenies have shot themselves in the foot as usual with that one.

Bruce Pascoe in "Dark Emu" has listed numerous explorers' comments preserved in Libraries etc. Even those prejudiced against the Natives wrote indirect comments showing these were germinating and planting seed across large acreage , storing up to 4 tons in clay and stone bins , living in stone-foundation houses with rooms and creating wide parklands for hunting among scattered trees.
These are British settlers' reports by first visitors to regions across the continent.

Nick they also reported that where the Murray river red gums are preserved as "VERGIN" forest was actually open mostly grassland, with not a river red gum to be seen. It was only the lack of burning that allowed them to develop.

They also reported much of the Darling was too salt for man or stock.

It is hard to believe that our greenies & academics can get away telling so many straight lies.

righto, not sure exactly how you mean it Hasbeen.
So what do you say was the correct thing to write when the first British reached the Darling?