Giant yellow-wood delays construction
2009-11-19
Lise Beyers
A YELLOW-WOOD tree of approximately 300 years old, has become a burden to a prospective house-builder in Paarl. Chris la Cock purchased a piece of land off Durr Street to construct a new home for him and his family. To access the property, a pan-handle has to be built between two existing homes. But when construction workers started to clear this strip of land to make way for a driveway, they discovered a giant root from an adjacent yellow-wood tree. And here La Cocks plans were stopped dead in their tracks. “I have spent a large amount of money to purchase this property and all I want to do is build my home.” Although yellow-woods are not indigenous to the slopes of Paarl Mountain, they are a protected species and a permit is necessary even to prune such trees. But neighbours are now concerned that the large root will be hacked off, before a complete assessment is done. The owners of the property on which the tree stands, Molly and Dennis Minitzer, fear that if the root is cut off, it could make the tree unstable, causing it to topple, or that the shock of such damage could cause the tree to eventually die. Although some tree specialists do not expect the worst, they cannot guarantee the consequences of such mutilation to the tree. According to well-known local tree man, Barry Stander, cutting off the root would be like playing Russian roulette. “The root system of the tree will definitely weaken. If you lose a finger, your hand is affected by this in one way or another. “And in the case of such an enormous tree falling, it will have grave consequences.” La Cock has had an assessment of the tree done by a Cape Town company, but they too can give no guarantees. And the Drakenstein Municipality has no regulations in place to protect such trees. Now it all depends upon the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) to determine whether La Cock may remove the root or not. If not, the only alternative for La Cock will be to elevate the driveway to build over the root. This in turn will mean that he will have to fork out thousands more rands to raise the entire piece of land before construction begins. But a spokesperson for DWAF in Cape Town simply said, “Such a yellow-wood tree must remain unscathed.”
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