The health, stability and structure of the oldest tree in the center of Kolašin should have been dealt with by an arborist (an expert in tree care and maintenance), not a phytopathologist, the Green Kolašin Initiative announced.
At the request of the Secretariat for Environmental Protection, a few days ago, phytopathologist Dr. Jelena Lazarevic from the Forestry Center of the Biotechnical Faculty, based on a visual inspection and laboratory analysis, prepared a report in which she claims that “stabilization of the tree is not useful.” She stated that the linden tree was completely damaged due to the effects of rotting fungi, and that the entire core of the tree was destroyed.
"With all due respect to Dr. Jelena Lazarević, her undeniable education, love of trees and her analysis, that was simply not her job. Or at least not in the essential part. In a constant conflict with the hundred-headed Montenegrin bureaucratic monster and swimming with 'experts' in the murky waters of transition, one is forced to learn something, and that 'little something' is sometimes quite enough to expose the absurdity of a system. What we have learned, for example, along the way is that the only qualified person who can deal with the health and structural stability of an individual tree is an arborist," say the Green Kolašin Initiative.
They explain that, just as a phytopathologist deals with diseases of entire forests and their causes, an arborist deals with individual trees, most often in urban areas, their health, assessment of stability, and the quality of the tree and roots.
According to them, "the standard for assessing an old tree is resistography and tomography, as the only sure ways to determine the condition of the tree and roots, and the degree of hazard it poses to passersby."
"This shouldn't be done by just any arborist, but by an ISA certified one. Somewhere in a faraway world, where an ordinary tree is given so much importance, someone thought of introducing ethics as a necessary part and condition of certification itself. It shouldn't even occur to an arborist to fall under the influence of an investor or the owner of the betting shop in front of which the tree stands during the assessment," Zeleni Kolašin says.
They also say that “everyone knows very well that a lot of things in Kolašin have long rotted, that there is no escape from rot and that removal and reconstruction are necessary.” In that sense, they claim, the old linden trees in the Kolašin core should be last on the list for removal.
"So in the end we received confirmation from the highest authority of what we all already knew - that the tree is already very old, that it is suffering from various fungi. Just as it was deeply old and sick 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Or like the company that deals with occupational safety was brought in to assess the stability of the Marić house, an architectural monument built in the Art Nouveau style. To trivialize it to the end - it's like hiring a dermatologist to determine whether someone can do a handstand," conclude the Green Kolašin Initiative.
The tree on Sibirska Street (IV Proleterske) is considered by many Kolašin residents to be one of the oldest in the city and, according to local chroniclers, is part of the first urban tree line in Kolašin. It was allegedly planted in 1894. However, Dr. Lazarević could only determine the age of the tree based on the surrounding tree line, which was planted about 70 years ago, and the assumed dimensions of the now damaged trunk.
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