Trees by Polish rail tracks get the chop: report
PR dla Zagranicy
Alicja Baczyńska
06.08.2016 14:15
Rail employees have cut down 250,000 trees lining tracks in Poland in 2015, writes daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The step was taken under a 2008 ordinance requiring all trees located within 15 metres from tracks to be cleared as a safety measure.
The chopping spree is in full swing nationwide, the paper writes, adding that often the trees, including rare species and centenarian specimens, are replaced with acoustic screens.
Such clearing is often opposed from local residents, for whom the trees are often the last patches of green around, and, additionally, block the noise of passing trains and dust coming from tracks.
“The timber felling scheme is in line with documents obtained from [authorities in charge of] environment protection,” Dorota Szalacha, spokesperson with rail company Polish Railway Lines (PKP PLK), in charge of maintenance of rail tracks in the country, told Gazeta Wyborcza.
In Germany, rules on track-side vegetation apply to trees no more than six metres from tracks, and in Britain three metres. (aba)
Source: PAP, Gazeta Wyborcza
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