Slaughter
Published on 29th February 2024 
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutesNetwork Rail has been busy cutting down trees beside the Macclesfield stretch of the West Coast Mainline. The result is not pretty and affects a nearby walking route that I often use; death is everywhere to be seen. Many tree trunks have been denuded and left to look lifeless; others have been cut away to the top of their rootstock as if to finish them off. If life restarts on the former, the devastation may be softened, but that is not within sight just yet. It perhaps is too early in the year for that.
While I can understand that windthrow is a problem for trees next to a railway line during stormy weather (my recollection of the aftermath of Storm Gerrit makes me appreciate that), the devastating aftermath of the ongoing cutting looked sad to my eyes. It is one thing to trim back overgrown vegetation, but this is something else.
Shelter was removed, and it may be that walkers do not need such a clear view of the railway anyway; most of us are not train enthusiasts or spotters in any case. It all caused a trail that has something of a bucolic aspect to appear more industrial than it used to do. One wonders what that does to the attractiveness of the amenity in the long run.
The time of year hardly helps, with all the leafless trees and bare ground after the winter. When you hear any birdsong, it all sounds all the more poignant when you realise that bird nesting sites are being toppled. Maybe things will look less brutal during the coming growing season.
For now, though, there is a lot of carnage that needs healing. At times during my life, I have had my misgivings about tree cover when seeking photos of scenic spots, yet that is not how I feel about this ongoing aftermath. Anytime that I hear chainsaws working is sickening to my sensibility at the moment; it heralds destruction for me.
