Urban trees make towns a more liveable space for people, this isn’t just wishful thinking, there is clear evidence for the benefits of sharing your space with trees. Sidmouth Arboretum’s recent tree survey shows that much of our valley is blessed with very many trees and volunteers from the Arboretum are working with Sidmouth Town Council to bring more trees into urban spaces.
Trees in towns, sometimes called the urban forest, have many benefits including providing shade to cool concrete heat islands on sunny summer days, improving air quality, absorbing air pollution especially the micro-particulates generated by traffic, the trees are a food source for wildlife such as butterfly caterpillars and birds, they dampen down some of the strident town noise, they even catch some of the rain and recycle it back into the air to reduce the chance of flooding.
Best of all, their sheer beauty triggers something in our brain to make us feel happier and less stressed. It has been shown that hospital patients recover more quickly if they can see trees through the windows of their ward.
Of course, there are some downsides to urban trees. Their roots can block underground pipes and make pavements uneven. When they have finished their oh so pleasing autumn colour displays the leaves need to be put somewhere. There are plenty of examples around the world to show that these problems can be overcome with careful planning.
The key is to have the right tree in the right place. We have some marvellous large oak trees around parts of the town. These are remnants of the old farm hedges and hopefully developers have designed their estates to work round them, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to plant new ones in the High Street.
Some spaces are easier to plan than others. The Manor Road car park will probably be re-laid in a few years time and the bays will need to be set out again, this could include a redesign to accommodate lines of trees that would offer shelter to cars.
One easy way of having more trees visible in our streets is to encourage more people to plant trees in their front gardens, a principle embraced by R.W. Sampson when he designed Bickwell Valley. If they are planted away from the house and close to the boundary they become street trees effectively. There is a glorious Liquidambar in Salcombe Road that puts on a dazzling display each autumn. Imagine what it would look like if there was a whole string of them along the road.
Sidmouth Arboretum will be kick starting this project with another tree giveaway at their annual Celebration of Trees in Kennaway House on 15th November. They will have 300 young trees to give away. The trees will be Cherry Plum, Crab Apple and Elder, three species that have spring flowers and autumn fruits and will not grow too large for a garden site, come along and help yourself.
Ed Doplphin
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