Greening the streets of Sidmouth [Futures Forum]
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Planting trees is seen as a ‘good thing’ – but it very much depends on where and how. As the Sidmouth town council has said in its support of the Arboretum’s efforts, it’s all about “looking to find suitable areas to plant the trees”
There’s quite a debate about where to plant trees – but one area most would agree on is urban areas.
Treeconomics have given key advice to the Sidmouth Arboretum over the years – and their co-founder Keith Sacre spoke to the town council back in 2021 about planting trees in town.
Planting trees in our urban areas would keep things cooler, safer, greener, more pleasant.
In fact, this would be one of the most reliable ways to make Sidmouth more resilient to the changes in our weather – whether heat, cold, wet or dry:
The maps show that where trees and green spaces, such as parks, golf courses and tree-lined riverbanks, are close together, they create zones with the biggest cooling effects. But even small areas of green space and street trees have some useful cooling benefits. More trees are desperately needed in our towns and cities to help communities cope with the hotter summers that the climate crisis is bringing. But nearly half of neighbourhoods in English towns and cities have less than 10% tree cover.
The Trees for Streets organisation would like to ‘fill our streets with trees’ – primarily by getting town-dwellers to sponsor a tree. They also provide a whistle-stop tour of the myriad benefits of the humble street tree – from making us happy to protecting us from flooding.
We certainly need to stop chopping down the trees in our town gardens and on our town’s streets.