THE branches have been stripped from two of Ashburton's oldest and tallest landmarks. It has left a giant redwood and western red cedar standing bare, with only the trunks remaining in the grounds of St Andrew's Parish Church. The work on bringing down the trees – the redwood standing 33 metres and the cedar at 24 – was carried out by contractor Max Bayles on Wednesday last week. But because of the high winds and storms forecast, the trunks had to remain. They will be felled today. The vicar of Ashburton, the Rev Preb Philip Darby, said everything had gone off wonderfully well. 'It is sad they had to come down, but unfortunately it is just one of those things,' he said. The trees, both more than 100 years old, had been stricken by honey fungus and were becoming dangerous – the majority of the cedar's root system was dead and the redwood, to all intents and purposes, was also dead.
