Latest news with #urbanForestry
The Guardian
17-05-2025
- The Guardian
Nothing to sneeze at: one of Melbourne's most-loathed trees wins a second act
Long the darlings of municipal landscaping, London plane trees line boulevards from New York to Johannesburg. In Australian cities people have lived, worked and sneezed alongside them for generations. Revered by urban planners for their good looks, impressive carbon sequestering capabilities and hardiness, the hybrid plant (made from American sycamore and oriental plane) is an optimum city tree – in measured doses. But while their verdant majesty in summer and handsome silhouettes in winter are widely admired, their reign of eye-watering, throat-scratching terror throughout spring has made them notorious. While some claim that we aren't nearly as allergic to them as we think we are, the City of Melbourne has committed to radically diversifying its urban forest in the coming years, reducing London planes' prevalence in the central business district from 63% to 20%. Since 2019 the local government has removed 449 of them. While most of the trees retired from civic duties become mulch, Andy Ward, a furniture designer and the curator of Melbourne Design Week's Goodbye London Plane, has seized the opportunity to give at least one of them a more lasting second act. Inspired by an Instagram post he saw years earlier by the inner-city timber mill Revival, Ward invited eight makers to parlay the salvaged remains of a newly sacrificed tree into stools, lighting, vases and more. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning He hopes the project will help reframe people's perspectives of these much-maligned marvels and encourage more designers and makers to find ways to immortalise these silent witnesses to the city's history, bringing them from the streets and into homes. Plane trees, he says, 'are so iconic and polarising, but no one seems to realise how beautiful the material is'. The timber is 'really forgiving' to work with and offers a 'stunning' grain; he likens its malleability to that of sycamore, while being 'slightly softer than American oak' – and a whole lot easier to work with than native hardwoods. Each piece comes from a single tree felled in Gipps Street, Collingwood. In 2022 the team at Revival began their urban timber recovery project; the following year they managed to rescue this 75-year-old behemoth from Yarra city council's chipper with just hours to spare. Rob Neville, Revival's founder, says the tree yielded more than five tonnes of usable timber which has been distributed to more than a dozen 'custodians' – from knife makers to architecture students – all charged with ensuring that the material is given the respect it deserves. 'Treating these trees as waste would have been considered insane back in the day, now it's the norm – we want to help change that,' he says. Revival is working closely with a number of councils in Melbourne to get more felled municipal trees into the hands of designers and makers. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion As a lover of the plane tree and an advocate of more sustainable practices in the design world, Ben Mooney, the owner of Ma House Supply Store in Collingwood, where the project will be shown, says he immediately saw the potential of Ward's concept. He hopes that by foregrounding reclaimed timber, the project will not only elevate the status of the London plane but also a more regenerative, respectful way of working with resources that are too often squandered. 'If this helps get the word out, it's a success.' Georgie Szymanski, a timber furniture maker based in Preston, has been crafting art deco-inspired pieces for the last five years. When Ward and Mooney reached out with the concept, she was intrigued. 'To be able to utilise this material that is otherwise just going to waste is so cool,' she says. Szymanski has created a traditional tea table from the timber. The grain, she says, is an unexpected delight. 'It's shimmery, with this freckled appearance – it's crazy how underused it is.' Having previously regarded the trees as little more than a ubiquitous irritant, Szymanski says the project has given her a new-found respect and fondness for them: 'It is 100% a timber I'd use again.' Goodbye London Plane is showing at Ma House Supply Store during Melbourne Design Week, until Sunday 25 May
BBC News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Kew Gardens expert urges a new approach to looking after trees
London should take lessons from Sweden on how to protect the capital's trees from droughts and diseases, an expert from Kew Gardens has told evidence to the London Assembly's environment committee, Kevin Martin said a lot of the species currently being planting in urban environments are not suited to city Martin, head of tree collections and arboriculture at Kew, said: "I've just come back from Malmö in Sweden and they are very far advanced of what we're doing now in London."He suggested people are undergoing a "really big cultural shift" towards protecting trees. The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Mr Martin pointed to the controversy surrounding the felling of an ancient oak tree in Enfield as evidence of increased public interest in trees, along with the public outcry about the destruction of the Sycamore Gap tree in said: "I do think we need to keep pushing on with that and don't let it go out of the public eye, because as soon as that news story stops, it will all be forgotten about again."He told the London Assembly to "think really carefully now about getting the species selection right" as the capital's trees are suffering from droughts and diseases as the impacts of climate change are suggested planting trees with the plasticity to deal with drought stress, and said the Swedes are even making their own soil "so when they do get rain, they can hold the moisture for a lot longer".He added: "They're using a mix of perlite and biochar and also soft, organic mulch, and they're really buying into it and increasing their planting pits."So there's lots of things we have to look at to get the establishment of trees in London." According to the Greater London Authority, London is the one of the world's largest urban forests, containing an estimated 8.4 million trees in public and private Martin said that there was no getting away from the fact that London is "a big urban heat island" which typically records temperatures higher than in rural member Keith Prince said that prior to his election, Sir Sadiq Khan had promised he would plant two million trees in his first term alone - though this pledge did not end up appearing in his formal Crisostomo, City Hall's head of green infrastructure, said Sir Sadiq remained committed to his goal of increasing London's tree canopy by 10%, having already funded the planting of more than 600,000 new trees since his election in 2016.
