We water our trees for the first two years after they are planted. After that they should have their roots down and can normally be expected to look after themselves. However, the prolonged period of rainless heat which we are currently enduring has lowered the water table so much that even trees which have been in the ground for three years or more are suffering.
We were surprised and saddened when we set off on our watering round last Thursday (14 July) to find that a number of the trees in the Memorial Park between Bramble Road and Honeysuckle Way which were planted in the 2019-20 planting season and watered throughout the spring and summer of 2020 and 2021 are showing signs of serious distress, having been apparently healthy the previous week. In response to this situation we watered all the trees in the Memorial Park. As mentioned in last week’s report above, it takes three bowser loads to water all the trees planted in the last two years. This is the most we have ever needed and, due to unavoidable team absences, we have struggled on a number of occasions this year to dispense more than two bowser loads. Last Thursday, however, we delivered a record four bowser loads to try to keep as many trees as possible alive. Fortunately we had an almost full team but even so it took us nearly four hot hours to complete the round.
But we did not feel that even this was going to be enough and those of us who could make ourselves available returned on Saturday (16 July) to water all the trees in the Memorial Park again, plus a number of other trees elsewhere in Witham which were clearly suffering. Those who remember the great drought of 1976 may remember that we were made familiar with the phenomenon of trees taking an ‘early autumn’, dropping their leaves and going into their period of winter inactivity so that they needed no water. It must be hoped that some of the trees which are suffering at present are adopting this coping strategy and will return next year. However, those who remember the summer of 1976 will also recall that many trees did die and we fear that it is inevitable that some of our trees will be lost this summer. We shall be watering again on Wednesday (20 July) with a less than full team and, if anyone is available to help, they would be very welcome. Just use the contact information on this site.
One last comment, during our watering round on Saturday we picked up a full sack of litter in and around the Memorial Park. It is sad that some people have so little respect for their own environment and other people’s enjoyment of the open spaces provided for them that they despoil those spaces even when it is easy to use the perfectly adequate number of litter bins provided. We also detected more examples of deliberate damage to trees, fortunately minor. It is difficult not to wonder from time to time why we bother trying to improve the environment for all Witham residents when there are those who care nothing for our efforts. But we are bolstered by frequent supportive comments from local residents. So on we go!
Richard Hawkes
17 July 2022
