Is it a sin to cut down a tree?

[Mamabear04]

I have a very big eucalyptus tree in my back garden, it's about 60ft tall! We moved into our house last year and I've always loved the tree but lately it's been dropping branches. The branches are really heavy and I'm worried one of them falls on my kids and hurts them. Ontop of that I have a small garden room underneath it and I'm worried it could damage it (I use it as an office space). I just had a quote from a guy who says it will cost £750 to get the tree cut back and into order then it will need maintained regularly. He also said he can chop it down completely for £950 and cut off the VAT. I'm in 2 minds as to what to do. Here are my thoughts on cutting it down;

Pro's
Safe for children
Won't damage the garden room
Will be financially beneficial in the long run
Won't be a risk to property and neighbours property if there is a big storm/high winds

Con's
It feels like a sin to cut down such an old tree
It will be home to wildlife and I'll be taking away their home
It offers some privacy to our property

I'm also in the get rid camp. Replace it with a nice fruit tree or something similar.
We had several conifers at the back when we bought our house. Hated them, they stopped the grass growing around them and left the neighbours in shade. We waited until summer, removed the dividing fence between us and the neighbour for the day and we had a tree felling party.
DH and neighbour got them down (neighbour was a loon who climbed up a ladder and lopped the buggers half way yelling timber as he went. health and safety was most certainly not followed 😂), neighbours wife and I started the BBQ and a lovely afternoon was had. Neighbour even took the wood for his log burner.

I replaced them with some cotoneaster for the berries, a cherry tree and a couple of other smaller fruit trees.

If the tree is in light, would you consider planting a lilac in its place? They don’t grow fast and are great for pollinators.

I wouldn't replace it with a lilac - lovely in bloom but the rest of the year not so much. I'd put a hawthorn in - native, beautiful, you can get really showy ones, and you get good autumn colour too. Or a mountain ash.

Yeah, you shouldn’t ‘consult’ the neighbours unless you are neutral about the decision and are happy to go along with what they want.
You might want to ‘inform’ the neighbours in some circumstances, so they know there are good reasons for your decision and that it is non negotiable but that you will be replacing it with something more suitable.

CUT IT DOWN! I say this with experience. Eucalyptus grow taller than their roots grow out If it hasn't been maintained in its early life. it will take years for the roots to catch up. I perhaps say this with judgement as we had a similar situation. Difference being the wildlife were using it to access our loft space. ££££'s of pounds later trying to get on top of a squirrel invasion we finally cut it down. Having said that, if it doesn't sway too much in the wind (the earth would move up and down with our one when it was windy) then it's probably safe to cut it back. However they do need cutting back yearly as they do grow super fast. So you need to decide if that's something you can justify paying for 😊

Cut it down and replace with native hedgerow plants, or something insect and bird friendly.

I've just had to chop down an apple tree as it was next to the kids playhouse and half the trunk had rotted but the tree was still happily flowering. I'm upset but we'll replace it as soon as possible.

Eucalyptus trees will drop perfectly healthy branches without any warning if the weather gets dry. It's part of their survival mechanism to reduce the amount of water they need to survive.

They are not safe trees to have near a house. Also as someone mentioned they are quite flammable - if you go to Australia you see mile after mile of Eucalyptus trees that are scorched but not destroyed as they just fuel the fire with their resin and it leaps from one tree to the next.

The tree will survive at the expense of anything around it, or anyone under it.

They are an interesting tree but I wouldn't want one in my garden.

I'd warn your neighbour and explain why, but tell them the same day or the evening before and plant something more appropriate.

My neighbour had a beautiful mature flamingo willow that hung over my fence and was the nicest thing in my garden until I could afford to get my garden properly done. They sold and I came home one day and new neighbours had chopped the tree down and were digging out the beautiful garden to put down fake grass😭. Then having destroyed it all, they moved out themselves 6 months later 😠 . People do get very attached to natural things in their environment.