Cutting down trees in your garden

From what I have been told, it's only walnut trees that you you need permission to cut down.

This was discussed a while back. All trees are protected in Bulgaria, including the ones in your back garden. Legally speaking, you need to get a permit to fell, or even radically prune, them. This being BG, a lot of people just ignore the law and carry on regardless; of course, you do then take the risk of being fined. I'd say that breaking the law in our host country, even if the locals are also wont to do so, doesn't bode well for migrant integration....

That is good to know, Jim.

I wonder how that applies to managing a coppice? There's a piece of land we own beside my house which has some black locust trees. I think they may have been coppiced for firewood in the past. Almost certainly the black locust in the small wooded block on the other side of our land has been coppiced.

Also there are a bunch of wild plum and tree of heaven seedlings and young saplings with trunks less than 1" diameter that I really don't want to allow to get established. Left to nature, the house would quickly disappear into a wild plum thicket. Hopefully there is a legal definition of what size or age a tree needs to be before it's protected.

I'll need to check how the law applies in this case before firing up the little chainsaw!

Be very careful cutting down a tree of heaven, regardless whether you have permission or not. When you cut it down and only leave a stump, it will regrow new shoots and these grow fast. This would be manageable if this was the only problem, however cutting one down sends the tree into a frenzy and the roots start expanding and within a year you will find new clones in a diameter of 5 meters around the original tree. So reproduction of this tree is not only through seeds. I made the mistake of cutting one down before diving deep into information about this tree. I regret it as they now pop up everywhere and the stump sends outs shoots that grow 2 meters in one summer season. 

Unfortunately the only way to permanently get rid of this invasive species is to dig it out entirely.

Here in the region (hills directly around Varna) they got introduced by someone and they are spreading like crazy and killing everything it its path.

Should anyone want to go down the route of permission, I think that would be easily granted considering this tree is not native to Bulgaria and a threat to native species.

Yes, sadly that is true. They've invaded my area north of Dobrich and are spreading. I doubt they can be eradicated, but hopefully controlled. They spread both from the roots and by seed, and regrow like crazy! I did manage to get rid of one that was growing up through the floor in my front entry, and I hope I've stopped another one. I try to catch them when they're small. I also read that pollarding (cutting them off several feet or higher up the trunk rather than at ground level) reduces the risk of getting the root suckers popping up. That does seem to help. They're regrowing from the stump every time they're cut, but so far that suckering response hasn't been triggered.

I haven't asked for permits as the tree of heaven I've cut have been smaller saplings, not really trees (though I do need to check the legal definition of a tree). The black locust I want to coppice are bigger, about 3" trunks at ground level.

I checked. In the UK trees are "automatically protected if they have a trunk diameter of more than 7.5 cm at a height of 1.5 m from the ground" so I imagine the EU definition is the same. Further reading suggests that the UK Court of Appeal found that a tree is a tree no matter how small, but that was for an area under a tree preservation order and not a species that is a listed invasive weed, as both tree of heaven and black locust are in the EU.

Though I've taken discussion a long way from the original question. I do think cutting a full-sized tree should be discussed with the mayor first, and I doubt they'd object or even require any paperwork. Those huge pines were planted near houses to bring long life and prosperity to the occupants, but unfortunately the pines live a lot longer than the people who plant them do! And get a lot bigger, too.

Just as a side note, as we have also had huge problems with these trees, and them sending out shoots as a defensive mechanism when they are cut down.. if you drill into the base and pour neat NASA ( taking appropriate precautions) into the hole at the base, this will kill them and their seedlings.

Yes, I believe tree of heaven is one of those plants where evn those who prefer to avoid using chemicals in their garden will agree to glyphosate. I hope we can keep on top of ours without having to resort to that. I'm a bit concerned what I will find when I get back though, as due to family issues I've been stuck in the UK for three months and won't be able to get back to the house till early November. It could be a tree-of-heaven nightmare that will have this confirmed organic gardener reaching for the weedkiller.

We have a new tree of heaven right outside (it's less than 2m from the building) our apartment in Plovdiv. It grows like crazy! it reached the 4th floor of the building (and past our flat) within 3 or 4 years. The shield/stink bugs love it, so there's a ton of those trying to get in during the summer.

We have one growing through the paving between us and our neighbour; it never gets out of hand because it's pruned almost out of existence every year 😅

That's my aim with the weed trees at my place, too at least on the main house block. The wild plums are just as bad, even more prolific. I'll just keep cutting them back. Over and over and over and over again...

But I suspect I will wear out before the trees do!

The wild plums are easy to graft onto: we have several which now give us a good crop of both plums and cherries every year.... 😎

Good to know! I haven't ever tried grafting, but it would be an excellent way to get better fruit varieties onto an extremely hardy rootstock.

Our garden is blessed with quite a few good productive trees. Besides the huge crops of assorted weeds, the garden produces loads of plums, cherries, and quinces, far more than we could possible eat in a year. The apples, pears, and peaches seem a little more temperamental, but we certainly seem unlikely to ever be lacking in fruit. My neighbour is teaching me the local ways to preserve it.

@gwynj I empathise with the Stinky Bugs!

The area in Varna we live in, has a plethora of fruit trees - cherries, plums, hazelnuts, apples, pears, apricots.  This came about in Communist times, when everyone lived in houses, each, with a small amount of land. After 1989, the houses continued for around six years, until Capitalism really became a reality and people worked out how to make Capitalism work for them. At that point, private apartment blocks started appearing, because people wanted to sell up and move.  But instead of selling their houses, they demolished them, in favour of building apartment blocks, which brought them a significantly higher return, both in sales and rent.  We live in a block, where the original owner, did just that.  They knocked their house down and built a small block (6 apartments and 3 Kabinets). He still owns two apartments on the floor below us (he was renting one out). He also owns a house in a nearby village. His cousin lives behind us in a house, that he and his wife refused to pull down.

As the blocks appeared, the land between them  remained - some private, some public and what was left, was a legacy of fruit trees, that adorn the area, along with every other imaginable tree.   It does appear, that trees are sacred in the cities, especially, which are rarely felled.  Evidence of this shows, when you see trees, hundreds of years old, living 2 metres away from panel blocks..

I'm forever thankful, that I moved to Bulgaria and saddened by the dreadful state of the, almost, treeless state of many areas of the London and, come to that, other UK towns and cities.