'm posting here as I'm guessing those on these pages are practical people.

The neighbours to my left have allowed the tree to the left of the photo grow on the bank of the khlong...blocks my view a bit but has improved bird life.

Saplings are now growing on the khlong side of my fence. Today I climbed up on my ladder, used an umbrella to grab all the saplings and snapped them to stop them maturing and blocking my view of khlong life. There were 2 saplings I couldn't reach to snap, which can be seen in the middle of the photo.

How to get my hands on those 2 saplings?

Are they on your land?

Even if not (they are on public land), just walk round and pull them out.

The photo's not very clear, but the two saplings, along with the 4 or so larger trees along the wall on the left look like กระถิน trees. (White Popinac ). They're pretty much trash trees.....farmers feed the younger branches to livestock or use the poles of more mature trees to support squash etc. They're everywhere. I doubt anyone would notice if you took a machete to them. They'll grow very quickly once it starts raining.

They're on waste land. On the banks of a very small khlong. Getting to them over the mooban fence is very difficult. My rice farmer brother in law can do it...when he's short of money he visits for the day and trims our garden trees for money (better than just giving it). Next time he visits I'll get him to go over and chop them down but until he visits next those saplings will get bigger so I need to snap them now.

Those trees are Leucaena Leucolephale a tree legume, or Gratin in Thai ,we feed it to our cattle those 2 saplings are soft wood ,if you could find a knife tie it to a long pole you might be able to reach over cut them down , one with a hook on would be best ,have done that my self, but they will grow again for sure ,but as Crossy said just walk round and chop them down ,

We cut a lot now ,it is one of our dry season feeds , for the cattle ,I have noticed a good few times that when out cutting gratin the lack of birds on the gratin trees ,can not be a lot they for them to eat ?,so you are doing well .

^walking around to the saplings would be a hell of a trek around the mooban wall so not feasible.

I'll work out a way to throw out a line around the 2 saplings out of my reach (my query how to do), pull them towards me and snap them. I'll get the brother in law over the wall to do the job properly when he next comes.

The birds perch in the tree, don't think they feed or nest in it.

Cheers

why not a long metal hook? Light rebar?

Also they make extendible tree trimmers which have snipper on one side and a curved saw on the other. Seems like what you need.

I've waited till the 3 saplings too far away from me to reach have grown taller. I've attached a very lightweight umbrella to a broken long mango pole (the type with a small wicker basket on the end to grab mangoes ). Job done. All the broken saplings continue to sprout new branches and grow upwards, and I have to break them every so often but I'm able to keep the area under control and retain my existing view.