November 10, 2005
By Tammy O'Reilly
THE greenery along Hans Strijdom Drive in Randburg is being restored after trees were cut down illegally to make way for advertising space.
Over a two-week period in September, a tree felling company - commissioned by an outdoor advertising agency - cut down 68 trees along the suburb's main road to create new advertising space, as well as to make existing billboards more visible.
Now, Johannesburg City Parks, the agency responsible for the City's greening, has had to replant 38 trees along the island separating the lanes on Hans Strijdom Drive, between Republic Road and Hill Street.
The new white stinkwood trees cost City Parks between R200 and R700 each.
"The original trees were about 15 to 20 years old. Some of the trees stood about four metres high and each of those trees were valued between R4 000 to R9 000,"explained Mark Griffiths, senior manager of street trees at City Parks.
"The environmental impact of removing these trees is quite significant. Some trees survive in a family, if one gets removed then the other suffers," continued Griffiths.
City Parks manages about 1,6-million trees along the city's streets.
On Wednesday, 9 November City Parks lodged a formal complaint at the Linden Police Station against the advertising company.
"It's going to be a three-step process," said City Parks' spokesperson, Jenny Moodley. "The first is a criminal process, where it will be determined whether the advertising company has to pay any penalties. The fine can be anything up to R1 500 per tree."
The second step, she added, would be to recoup the value of the trees and secure replacement trees from the tree felling company.
Lastly, if the advertising company was found to have contravened the City's by-laws, City Parks will withdraw any agreement it has with it.
The agreements City Parks usually has with outdoor advertisers is to maintain the area around the billboard and to assist the company through the procedures involved inputting up a billboard, such as approaching the town planning department.
"Johannesburg City Parks wants to send out a clear message that this sort of intolerance to our environment will not be tolerated," said Moodley.
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