From Nigel Quérée.
I WOULD be grateful if you would allow me to explain more fully my actions on Friday 3 July in trying to save the two oak trees in People’s Park.

First, I do not in anyway underestimate the potential risk to people from the caterpillars’ hairs and I sincerely hope that everyone who has been affected by them makes a full and speedy recovery.

There are many aspects to this issue. I am not sure how the risk assessment was carried out in this case, but certainly it appears that these two trees were not considered to have much value (in a tree sense) and while they may have taken 40 years to grow, and in that time make an immeasurable contribution to the town’s biodiversity and landscape, they had potentially tens of years of life left; yet in not much more than 40 seconds they can be cut down.

I knew nothing about this incident until I saw a news report on television at about 10:30 pm on Thursday. I searched www.gov.je for more information, but found nothing. Local media websites reported the likely fate of the trees.

Early Friday I made some phone calls which gave me only sketchy additional details so I decided to walk to People’s Park hoping to be able to reason with the people there that there had to be a better alternative to cutting them down: some form of tent surely could be used to secure the trees and avoid the hairs escaping – we can do it in other cases, for example, when removing asbestos in buildings. However, when I arrived one tree had already been cut down. The decision was made and there was no time for alternatives to enable the park to be used that weekend.

The caterpillars are in Jersey, much further north than their traditional range as a result of climate change. They were first identified in the UK in 2006. According to Turning Point: The Eco-Active guide to the Science and Impacts of Climate Change in Jersey (published last year to coincide with a British Irish Council environment meeting) at page 95: ‘In 2007 the Oak Processionary Moth was detected in Jersey’. It goes on to state: ‘This insect also poses a human hazard as the backs of older caterpillars are covered with thousands of pointed defensive bristles containing a toxin … and can cause rashes or breathing difficulties for some people’. The article concludes: ‘There is a need for increased vigilance and awareness …’

In the UK, particularly London boroughs, there are regular warnings with images published in newsletters and websites urging the public to get in touch if the moths, eggs or caterpillars are seen.

I am not aware of any such increased vigilance or a public awareness campaign in Jersey until this latest incident. It is only after quite a few weeks that the caterpillars reach the stage when their bristles are dangerous, so there was the potential for them to be seen much earlier. Even so, the news release posted on the States of Jersey website on 3 July, after the trees had been cut down, does not contain any images to assist the public in identifying the caterpillars, even though they are asked to do so.

www.gov.je/PlanningEnvironment/OakProcessionaryMothupdate.htm
Saturday’s JEP had a story about the thousands of Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars which are very common this year after the spectacular migration of their parents. How many of these bristly beauties will be mistaken for the oak processionary moth caterpillars?

The wider concern is surely the clear evidence of climate change impacting on our lives – in this case, particularly those of children and residents using People’s Park. This impact might seem rather slight against the potential of whole islands disappearing under rising sea levels and increased hurricane activity in the Bay of Mexico, but all these impacts are unpredictable in terms of when they might affect us and the scale of the hazard they pose. The only certainty is that these impacts will increase, especially if we do nothing to limit our carbon emissions.

In summary, my frustration on Friday was that these two healthy oak trees were destroyed because we have all contributed to the pollution which has adversely affected the climate to allow the moth to spread here; we have all failed to do enough to protect both people and trees from the caterpillars; and we all place such a low value on trees that their destruction is all too easily chosen as a solution.
Creux Baillot Cottage,
Chemin des Garennes,
St Ouen.