Dig in: Alastair Humphreys, credited with popularising the idea of the ‘microadventure’, seemed to enjoy his time creating a ‘forest of the future’ in Ashburton
Hundreds of volunteers worked to create a “future forest” in Ashburton Playing Fields last weekend with a mass tree-planting session where the organisers reckon more than 3,600 saplings were planted.
Tree-mendous: Trees for Cities made it a day of family fun
“The new trees will enrich the area by supporting biodiversity, cooling and cleaning the air, and boosting people’s mental and physical health,” according to the event organisers, environmental charity Trees for Cities.
To mark National Tree Week and Trees for Cities’ 30th anniversary, other festivities at the Ashburton event included the bright rhythms of Carribé Steel Band, The Museum of Memorable Trees exploring the deep connections people have with trees and Roaming Trees, a walk-about comedy act.
The Sensory Trust, a charity that makes nature more inclusive, provided relaxed sign-in and accessibility packs.
One of the trees planted was a community memorial tree, set up by St Christopher’s Hospice.
Trees for Cities is the only British-based charity working at a national and international scale to improve lives by planting trees in cities. “We get stuck in with local communities to cultivate lasting change in their neighbourhoods – whether it’s revitalising forgotten spaces, creating healthier environments or getting people excited about growing, foraging and eating healthy food,” they say.
Must be bark-ing: comedy duo Roaming Trees were on hand to jolly along the volunteers
Those attending the Ashburton event included nature author and adventurer Alastair Humphreys, the 2012 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and someone credited with popularising the idea of the “microadventure” – short, local, accessible adventures.
After his microadventure in Croydon, Humphreys said: “We worked side by side, hauling mulch, digging holes and transforming the space into a little bit of future forest.
“It felt great to be surrounded by fellow tree-lovers and decent local folk.
“People in cities need trees more than anywhere else to clean up the air, to lower the temperatures, to help with pollution, to bring us some happiness and nature connection, to bring some joy, to get some wildlife into our lives. It’s vital.”
One of the local volunteers was impressed by the day’s activities. “It was fabulous fun for the whole family. Very well-organised! A very positive experience and a great memory to carry with us.”
Back to nature: all ages were encouraged to get stuck in to the day’s planting
Trees for Cities has a 30-year history of bringing communities together to plant trees, targeting places with markedly low tree canopy cover.
Ashburton Playing Fields is situated within neighbourhoods that have an estimated 9.8% and 14.7% canopy cover, well below the recommended urban tree canopy cover of 20%, and is rated among the bottom one-third most tree-deprived areas in the country.
According to Trees for Cities, “The Croydon Climate Crisis Commission strongly supports more tree planting and the restoration of green spaces.”
Trees for Cities is running a special appeal until December 10, to help plant more trees where they’re needed most. Every donation received between now and this Tuesday will be doubled – donate at www.treesforcities.org/rooting-for-equity.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Let’s hope Perry and Roche’s obsession with cutting the grass doesn’t result in the council’s parks staff running all the saplings over with a mower
Come on, Inside Croydon, expose this folly!
Tree planting involves assessing the final fully grown sizes of tree, then planting with appropriate spacing.
This looks similar to the circa 1.4m spacing Trees for Cities planted in Beckenham Place Park with Mayor of London funding to Lewisham Council.
Trees need physical space, nutrients, water, light and air.
To onlookers, there should be thought as to landscaping layout and individual tree form. This is just a grid.
To me, this looks like a numbers game for politicians for tree planting (whip planting) and misusing well-meaning public volunteers’ time and energy creating a mess in the future.
Around 99% of trees will have to be felled to let the 1% grow and form properly.
This is just a waste of tree whips and volunteer goodwill.
What is Trees for Cities thinking?
If you visit the Langley Vale Centenary Wood near Epsom, you’ll see the trees planted there are close together and are doing very well. The Woodland Trust seem to know what they are doing
What will the trees and woodland look like in ten, twenty or 70 years for ‘trees’ planted 1.4m apart?
Check out any other woodland where nature has been allowed to take its course
This not a natural wood. Everything has been planted in one or a few days, and will grow, compete and suffer from limited resources.
This is practically ‘cruelty to trees`!
A comparable semi-mature example is Robin’s Wood planted in a tiny field near Shoreham, Kent. When I last saw it ten years ago, on walks I did over 20 years, it had become an eyesore, unnatural block of tangled dense trees, more dense than any jungle.
By chance, I met a Conservation Group leader and, without prompting, he relayed that he had alerted the owners that it needed to be thinned out.
Instead of quickly planting whips to create a mess which then makes a nightmare job to thin out and, of course, chop down the very trees planted, I suggest that it makes sense to think about the final individual tree canopies and, yes, what it will look like in 70 years, and plant accordingly.
Where trees woukd be most beneficial and seen daily by the public, is in treeless streets.
However, for political numbers-game planting, or charities which are really businesses, it is quicker to plant 99p whips in a grid in a playing field, most of which will have to be removed, than to dig tree pits in paved streets.
Even some policy has been changed to stem the ‘numbers game’. I recall a GLA policy now referring to London tree canopy coverage by area, not numbers of trees.
Tree canopy coverage can be achieved by planning the space for the fully grown tree canopies.
This will then mean that only around 1 or 2% of the whips are needed at a location. The other 98% can be sensibly placed in other locations and grow and be appreciated in their full glory. .