The urban 'topping' menace is defacing our coastal towns





Trees and plants on municipal ground which have
been cut and topped for the benefit of a neighbour’s
 sea view.

The “topping” (cutting off the top) of beautiful indigenous trees like Cape ash, Cheesewood and Milkwood for the sake of a view of the sea is a phenomenon in Plettenberg Bay and elsewhere which Charles Reitz calls “an insult to our culture”. He insists that this tragedy has been allowed to continue due to ignorance and the resulting arrogance prone to all classes of property owners.

“There should be an environmental officer in this town who reacts to the first sound of a chainsaw. There are some trees that have been topped many times by people who think the trees can simply grow back again. Eventually they cannot because they run out of energy, and as a result their shady canopy is lost, with all the birds and other creatures that depend on them. Invasive plants then thrive on the additional sunlight and take over.”

A Cheesewood Pittosporum viridiflorum which has

been repeatedly topped, providing sunshine

 to alien plants which flourish below.

This would not happen as easily as it does if the people involved employed suitably trained experts who are able to deal with large trees in a way which allows them to remain in place while also offering a “framed” view which is preferable to the “open sea view” - an obsession found all along the coast, turning potentially leafy towns and villages into monstrosities by the sea. There have even been cases where neighbours have poisoned or ring-barked trees next door. The alternative is simple cooperation between neighbours and the services of qualified tree-surgeons or arborists.

“Now it’s too late, in many cases,” laments Charles. “A lovely and sophisticated town like Plett almost spoiled because a sea view is more important than beautiful trees close to our homes. Many people doing this could be wealthy, educated folk who might complain of the lack of insight in this regard on the part of our indigenous communities. It is the result of a culture of fear – fear of vermin, fear of snakes, fear of nature.”