School telling us to remove nut trees from community orchard

[Calling]

We are in a local voluntary group and local people planted an orchard in the grounds of a school, for the school.

Now, the school has written to say that we have to remove the nut trees because one pupil has a bad nut allergy.

There are fruit and nut trees, that the local people planted some years ago and we have put a lot of work into weeding and watering. The yield was actually for the kids and we are volunteering with the school with and nature sessions outside.

Before anyone says we are potential child killers, we do understand the importance of safety. There is a management plan in place, but the school has been asked by a parent to remove our trees.
I do feel disheartened - nobody in the school said no to nut trees originally.

The parents could pay for the tree to be removed.

The sadness of losing a tree over potentially a child dying aren’t the same.

I know someone who had a child with a severe allergy. Nothing allowed in school. A kid ate some at home didnt wash their hands and came to school. Touched a piece of fruit in the communal fruit bowl. Child with allergy ate the fruit and almost died: EpiPen administered. Continued exposure puts the allergy child into heightened allergic state for 4-6 weeks after an attack.

I suggest those who don’t understand anything about how severe allergies can be do some research and not be so dismissive.

This isn’t about health and safety gone crazy ita abiut a life:

YABVU

It would be helpful to find out exactly what the school is worried about in order to get a sense of proportion. It sounds as though somebody has raised a problem and the school is worried that they will be liable if a child has an allergic reaction or fatality.

Are they worried that children will pick up the nuts and eat them? That doesn’t seem likely given that walnuts, almonds, sweet chestnuts, cobnuts and hazelnuts have hard shells. Do children have an allergic reaction if they just touch these? Are the children able to resist picking up fallen nuts if they have an allergy to them? Can other children be told not to pick them up in order to avoid transferring material that children are allergic to?

There are many heritage trees that caused no problems at all when people walk past them. No way will 50, 60 or 100 year-old trees be chopped down because of nut allergies. So what is the problem here?

Where are the trees? Can they be cordoned off in the autumn? Can the nuts be harvested and taken away before the children can get at them? Can the children be told not to go near them in the autumn?

Do children who are allergic to nuts have an allergic reaction to the leaves of nut trees at other times of the year?

Is this a walnut tree?
I didn’t realise walnuts grow in the UK.
Do people realise how difficult it is to get to the actual nut inside a fallen nut with or without shell?

Is there any evidence that walnuts inside a shell trigger a nut allergy? That would be my starting point. I don’t know the answer myself. But this is the crucial question.

I remember my grandparents had a huge walnut tree and, as children, we were always keen to find nuts. But you needed at least a largish rock and hard ground to have any chance of breaking the shell. And we often had to remove the green soft outside shell (messy job, the iodine used to stain our skin). We actually had to take whatever we could find back to the house and grandad would open the nuts for us.
Hazelnuts are different, much easier to break.
How about introducing a large army of squirrels so no children ever get to these nuts on time?

Hi, I think the proble. is not as simple as keeping the child away from the tree. The part that causes the allergy is the protein of the nut which can be transfered by touch for example an none allergic child could pick up a fallen nut, get the protein on their hand and then touch a jigsaw that the allergic child plays with. The school are trying to elimate the risk as much as humanely possible.

This child could have developed the allergy recently. It is not as simple as saying why would the parents send them to a school with nut trees. Likewise the staff when the trees were planted may not have been had the knowledge about nuts and allergies

I felt this about the OP too. This mum is clearly very worried about her child possibly dying at school from a severe allergy. Either this volunteer is not a mum or is of the generation that writes off allergies as inconsequential. Oh no poor tree! Get a grip.

I've never heard of a gluten free school for a celiac child. Nuts seem to get special privilege. I know this is because it can be sensitive to airborne particles. But celiacs are also very sensitive to cross contamination which I can imagine is easy with kids.

If the school owns the land, I imagine it has the right to remove the trees from its land. But I would be surprised if the school has any right to demand that the volunteers provide the funds or labour to remove the trees. Has the school entered into any form of contract with the volunteers re maintenance of the orchard?

@Calling If the school trust owns the land and the trees, they can have the nut trees professionally removed. You're volunteers, you don't have to do all the work. Just say that you're unable to do it.

As a parent with a child with severe allergies I agree. My child has a severe fruit allergy, I’ve never asked the school to ban the fruits, nor would I. I trust the school to manage that everything my child is allergic(it’s a number of things) to is kept away from them and that all staff are aware of their allergy plan.

My child isn’t the only one with severe allergies in the school. The school cater to each child accordingly and if that means a child don’t go in the orchard or is given a separate activity to keep them safe so be it.

Go to the Council and get a Tree Preservation Order.

This is madness. The child should be taught to identify nut trees and avoid them. Lichfield Council agreed to protect a nut tree from exactly this kind of madness.

As you have said, let's cut down all nut trees all over the world and never have nuts ever again for the sake of a very few.

Children with severe milk allergy carry epipens.
No school has as far as I know banned dairy for these children.

What about acorns? It's not common, but they can cause anaphylaxis too.

Of course they have every right to question the school’s decision.

The school doesn’t own the field or the trees. The school has requested that the trees be removed. If they want to enforce that, I presume they would need to seek a legal instruction.

The anaphylaxis association advises schools across the country about allergy awareness and so are an ideal organisation to consult with in this case.

DON'T CUT THAT TREE, OP. It's not your job, not your responsibility, tell the school to get someone properly qualified to do it if they insist on it being done. It's not necessary and a complete over reaction. You don't have to do it just because the school wants it done. Do you always do what you're told?

Because the trees are on school grounds, it’s fair enough that the school removes them. It is sad. But the child doesn’t have a choice about attending school, and probably can’t recognise the nuts for the danger they are. They deserve to have a safe environment to the best ability of the school. If the trees were anywhere else I would say you are reasonable in complaining, but the school wants the play areas to be safe, that’s absolutely fine. These aren’t historic oaks trees, just replace them with fruit trees.

surely if the nuts are from a tree they’re also int heir shells , and you’d need nut crackers, a hammer or a large rock to get at the allergen. MItigate against those
Quick google says you can be at risk from allergens from nuts in shells, but it’s lower risk and to do with factory processing
Also probably worth working out what the tree is, and what the child is allergic to
Cos if it’s a hazel or chestnut tree and the kid is allergic to peanuts then that’s just daft
Also the squirrels are more likely to eat the nuts than anyone else

Im unable to do a link but you can buy fruit/ nut catching nets which are really good at containing the harvest. Around £80 from Amazon.

A five year old tree can be replanted elsewhere. A school moved a mature 50 year old Rowan and the tree grew well afterwards.

@Coatsoff42 If the school trust determines that removing the trees is the best course of action, that's up to them. But they need to employ professionals to do it.

Natasha's Foundation explains how this could happen -

https://allergyschool.org.uk/faq/there-are-nut-trees-in-the-grounds-of-my-childs-school-which-i-feel-are-a-risk-to-children-with-tree-nut-allergies-what-can-i-ask-the-school-to-do/

I don't understand the fuss.

Get rid of the tree/s and replant with a nice crab apple.

I'm presuming they're young Hazel or walnut trees - not exactly special...

Filberts and hazel nuts are the exact same thing, just with two different names. You can coppice them right down to about a foot high and they will regrow. It would take several years before they produced nuts again. That means you could coppice them annually and there would be no problem.

Almonds are not true nuts, they are the edible seed of a stone fruit and come from the same prunus family as plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots and cherries.

Go back to the school with that information and if necessary, contact the Woodland Trust for advice and support. They do tree planting schemes for schools and will be able to advise.

Hope you get a realistic outcome.

The school doesn't want fruit trees in their place, but other trees.
And it wants us volunteers to plant them with the children, which sounds nice and very educational, but in reality needs to be done by adults with kids doing a little bit, as it turns out.

This is silly - There's no way all the nuts can be collected each year. What about the squirrels which will take them and bury them in random places too

There is a difference between nut trees in public areas (which no one is demanding be felled) and those within a school's grounds!