Not quite. One of the reasons that they are popular with planners
is that healthy ones DON'T blow over!

Quite.

They have extremely strong and
tenacious roots that get everywhere, and don't catch the wind much.

That's because of their delicate branch and leaf structure.

They are one of the few trees that will grow in really windswept
locations, though perhaps not as windswept as ordinary birch.

However, they aren't phenomenally long-lived trees and attract fungi
(mycorrhizal and parasitic), especially when grown on fertile soils
or when pollarded. And then they DO blow over! Which is why the
council's management strategy is completely cuckoo.

Agreed.

Even in the most fertile soils, they should remain healthy for a lot
longer than 15 years. There are a good many around here that must
be 50.

We have some opposite our houses which were planted in the late 1930s.

Mary


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.