A tree protection order was served on an owner of 15 trees in St Sampson’s in last month by the Development & Planning Authority after damage was caused to the root system of two trees, and Mr Dodd said more needs to be done sooner to protect the island's countryside.
‘Trees generally have no protection at all, and unless you go and request a tree protection order, which only really happens when a tree is under threat, people can do whatever they like,’ he said. ‘Theoretically, all trees of a certain size should be protected.’
He said there are currently about 100 TPOs in place, which covered more than 400 trees, but he said that protection needed to be put in place before a tree became under threat.
The recent TPO in St Sampson’s was served on a developer who had said that damage caused to the tree had been an accident and that serving a TPO had been an ‘overbearing attempt by States of Guernsey to prevent a problem or threat that didn’t exist’.
‘I don’t think it’s an overreach at all,’ said Mr Dodd.
‘We’ve got to have sympathy with the environment.’
Guernsey Trees for Life set up a Storm Goretti fund earlier this year to help pay for the costs of replacing some of the hundreds of trees lost in the storm in January.
‘It was very successful and we now have the finance in place to help preserve biodiversity,’ said Mr Dodd.