Separating Ourselves From Nature

Written by Michael Yallop

What do you say to someone who wants you to cut the tree down outside their house because the leaves fall on their driveway? As an urban forester, this is something I encounter quite regularly. It’s part of a list of issues such as honeydew on cars, blocks light, blocks satellite, cant widen my driveway, it’s dangerous and going to blow down, it’s too high ,can you cut it down and plant a small tree to list but a few.

I am referring here to the trees within our urban and peri-urban environments. Personally, I feel an area of arboriculture we totally underestimate and under manage. As our towns and cities increase in size, are we seeing a people more divorced from the natural world in search of the ‘’neat and tidy’’. What drives people to under value the trees around them? People put a value on their house, their clothes and their car but see no value in the tree at the front of their house, only the trouble it brings as mentioned. In many cases, residents only want trees felled due to leaf fall, but if a person lived near a woodland, we could not fell all the trees because leaves blew into their garden, they would probably be in awe of the beauty of the woodland.

Unfortunately, in many cases trees are felled or too harshly pruned to appease residents.

It is also common to find poorly selected tree species like Pyrus Spp or Malus Spp which generate large volumes of fruit and a lot of complaints from the fruit falling on driveways and footpaths. Selecting suitable species to avoid issues like this is very important. Honeydew from aphids falling on cars is another issue. Tilia tomentosa, Silver lime isent attack by aphids as they cannot get access to the leaf veins to feed (Carter,1992). So, for street planting we have eliminated the problem of honeydew on cars if we were to plant this type of tree going forward instead of the common lime.

Many residents see the tree as a risk. They deem the tree too large and feel it may blow over. In many cases I have been able to point out the benefits of the tree to the person.  Another observation I recently noticed is many newer housing estates focusing on more intensive housing density and trees taking a back seat. Is this creating the detachment from nature and need for perfection in our cities for ‘’neat and tidy’’. Many people now leave home in the morning to a street with little to no trees on it, only small shrubs and feel a tree is only going to encroach and destroy this space.

Biophilia is a term describing our need to interact with nature. Discussed by E.O Wilson and D Slator, it discusses how we need to seek connections with nature. My theory is that some people are moving away from this rather than getting closer e.g., our residents who want the tree removed due to leaves. When trees are intended for replanting outside houses, many residents refuse for fear of a return to what was previously there.

Unfortunately, many new street trees are damaged or destroyed. Having spoken before in Crann Magazine about this issue, I now find this a common feature in our mature street trees. Situations where trees are ring barked, holes drilled , nails driven in, chopped with an axe and the most dangerous of all I’ve come to, sawed partly through.

This not only leaves a danger to the resident but those passing under it. Surely, we can meet these residents and discuss their issues before it comes to damaging the tree.

I want to also give some recognition to those who are tree advocates on our streets. Those who have requested their trees not to be removed, those who said the tree looked better with a canopy to the path, those who see the beauty in autumn colour. Because the recognised saying of ‘’Every tree needs a champion’’ coined by Bartlett Tree Experts sums a lot up for me.  We need these people to take care of those young street trees outside their homes, and to embrace size and stature of the large trees on our streets.

For those of you who open a conversation with me saying ‘’I love trees but ‘’ I say imagine your road without trees, its giving clean air, shade, and cooling to our urban heat spots. People like this will inevitably always provide tree related issues and in some cases justified where roots damage walls or pathways. But these are the result of poor tree selection and tree planting pit construction in the beginning. Decisions in cases like that have to be made on a cost basis of retaining the tree for its eco-system services by repairing the wall and building a floating footpath or just fell the tree and reinstate the path.

Innovations like ‘’tree week’’ are fantastic and promote the need for tree planting. A focus on these should be of trees within our urban communities rather than always seeing a tree being planted in a big open space or a school.

We never see a photo of street tree plantings.  Residents miss out on seeing the benefits of the tree outside their own door. It would be prudent to educate them on the benefits of trees and species suitable for the location, to put fears at rest about some issues I mentioned.

Education as with anything is key. I would love to see something being rolled out to promote our city trees, championing what we have and showing residents of estates that leaf fall is just part of nature. We see in America that large mature street trees adorn there housing estates and have huge leaf fall, but they find ways to deal with it. Our streets are a little narrower so we must form a solution of our own.  We too must look at developing new approaches for our new estates to integrate more tree cover. As with anything there will always be some issues with our trees, but minds can be changed, practices can be changed and improved. Connecting with people is as important as ever and using our experience and knowledge to help them understand more about their tree is vital to show them the benefits it brings.

References:

• Kellert, S. and Wilson, E., 2013. The Biophilia Hypothesis. 2nd ed. Washington: Island Press.

• Slator, D., 2019. The Urban Forestry Movement and Urban Greening.

• Carter, C., 1992. Lime Trees and Aphids. Arboriculture Research Note. Surrey: Arboricultural Advisory & Information Service.