CONCERN over the number of trees being felled in and around Abergavenny has caused Monmouthshire County Council and Natural Resources Wales to explain the current state of play after several conspicuous trees and patches of forestry are said to have been taken down.

Natural Resources Wales told the Chronicle, ‘We have two forest/woods on the slopes of the Blorenge and we are currently harvesting in Govilon Woods, just south of Govilon village and Abergavenny.

‘The vast majority of the Govilon woodland was larch planted in the 1960s and therefore subject to the Phytophera ramorum policies of removing all larch from our forests.

‘There were small pockets of other tree species but if we’d left them in situ they would have blown down so the decision was made to remove all standing timber.

‘We realise that as the trees have been there for over 50 years our operations are potentially having quite an impact, as is the traffic management required so that we can fell the trees close to the public road safely.

‘However this felling has given us an opportunity to restock 50% of the woodland with broadleaf species in keeping with the native species found locally; this is more broadleaf than currently exists in the woodland.

‘The woodland area is about 20 hectares so will be restocked with approximately 41,000 trees.’

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council told the Chronicle, ‘We conduct tree safety assessments across the county on an ongoing basis and recent assessments have led to a need to carry out tree safety operations.

‘These have included the removal of dead or dying and unsafe trees in Bailey Park as well as pruning work. Residents may note that where it is safe to do so we have retained the main stem of a tree to provide a valuable dead wood habitat for the insects and birds that feed on them.

‘While we understand people’s concerns regarding the removal of trees on our property, we have a duty to ensure that they are safe. We use a nationally-recognised tree safety assessment procedure to make sure that we manage appropriately.

‘We aim to increase the overall tree canopy cover in Monmouthshire in line with recommendations from Natural Resources Wales. However, to do this requires a longer planning phase than it takes to simply remove trees. We’re working to identify suitable locations and appropriate tree species to achieve this.

‘Trees enjoy an exceptionally long life so we need to plan ahead as we consider issues such as the succession of older trees in planned landscapes like Bailey Park to ensure that we can retain large architectural trees that are resilient to challenges from climate change. We also take into account new and different tree pests and diseases.

‘The council was recently required to remove trees from St Mary’s Church in Abergavenny by South Wales Trunk Road Agency and we have started a five year management plan of the churchyard trees to support their long term health. This mostly involves re-pollarding to avoid the trees becoming top heavy and falling apart.’