Agnieszka Gergont, spokesperson for Bolesławiec City Hall:

The management of the Public Primary School and the IV Public General Secondary School of the Piarist Order, named after Rev. Stanisław Konarski, at Bankowa Street in Bolesławiec, applied for a permit to remove a tree, arguing that it posed a threat to people and property.

And explains:

The currently applicable regulations on tree felling are governed by an amendment to the Nature Conservation Act, which entered into force on 17 June 2017. Under these regulations, a person who wishes to remove a tree for purposes unrelated to conducting business activity, growing on property owned by that person (or leased—with the owner’s consent), must report this fact to the appropriate authority. In Bolesławiec, for trees growing on private property, the decision is made by the Mayor of Bolesławiec; when a tree is located on municipal land, the decision is issued by the Starosta of Bolesławiec County. For areas entered in the register of historic monuments as a park, garden or another form of planned greenery, decisions are issued by the Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments. In the case of forest areas, the decision-making authority is the Regional Directorate of State Forests.

And adds:

The decision of the Mayor of Bolesławiec found that the application submitted by the management of the Public Primary School and the IV Public General Secondary School of the Piarist Order, named after Rev. Stanisław Konarski, at Bankowa Street in Bolesławiec, was justified. After an inspection and the collection of evidence, a decision was issued authorizing the removal of the tree.

Are decisions issued “with a light hand”?

The spokesperson:

The City Hall examines every application with a view to taking into account the public interest (including the safe use of the property) and the legitimate interest of the party, and each time precedes its decision with an inspection of the trees, always attended by the advisory team for greenery and the applicant. Assessing whether the reason for an application to fell trees is justified always requires balancing the public interest against the applicant’s interest. In contentious cases, dendrological examinations are commissioned from authorized persons in order to obtain expert assessments and opinions on the condition of the tree whose removal the landowner has applied for [podkreślenia – red.].

She also notes:

The currently applicable regulations on tree felling do not provide for a “higher-level authority.”

Let us recall. Recently, a Reader wrote to us, informing the editorial office that several days earlier “a beautiful, old willow tree in front of the Piarist school had been cut down.”

And noted:

The tree was not trimmed, nor were the old, broken branches removed; it was cut “to the stump.” Of course, everything certainly took place in accordance with the applicable regulations and with the approval of the relevant authorities. I only wonder how Bolesławiec City Hall issues decisions to cut down old trees “with a light hand.” Several years ago, an entire side of the main avenue at the municipal cemetery was cut down. Did all those trees really pose a threat to people’s safety? Looking at the stumps of the felled trees, it seems that not all of them required complete removal. The same applies to last year’s felling of trees near the closed cemetery on Lubańska Street. This time, they supposedly threatened the cemetery wall, which was crumbling. What is more important—centuries-old trees providing oxygen to a city where exhaust fumes are increasingly all that can be smelled, or a wall that will probably crumble in a few years because the adjacent road is becoming increasingly congested?

The reader suggested that perhaps “someone truly competent” should assess whether these actions were really so necessary. She also added:

They will no longer benefit either me, my children, or the wildlife currently inhabiting the old trees—the bases that people providing explanations in such matters always invoke.