Most people now recognise that trees are key for our physical health because of the climate crisis and they are especially important in the urban environment where they help with air and noise pollution. Trees, of course, go much further than that: they provide shade, nesting sites for birds, pollen for insects and an aesthetic vista, screening off the often banal and dreary roads and streets of our towns and cities.
As an anthropologist, I learnt from evolutionary psychology how our instincts are still attached to the natural landscapes of our ancestors. Therefore, greening our urban environment and planting trees goes beyond the practical need to deal with pollution but recalls a familiarity with nature that soothes and calms our 'troubled brows': put plainly, trees are also good for our mental health. They recall the rhythms of nature by which we live and inhabit our planet Earth. In the same way the circadian rhythms have been shown to affect our sleep and well-being, the seasons respond to annual environmental fluctuations to which we, along with all organisms, have adapted. Trees, through their lofty and enduring stature, especially reflect this 'dance to the music of time', as they grow, change through the seasons, sprout leaves, flowers and fruit and then in the autumn shed their leaves. No one then should be surprised that we get attached to trees, particularity those in our neighbourhood we see every day: they are our 'friends'.
Early this year with the support of Cllr Chris White, the Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Environment, we argued to save a lime tree in Bricket Road, St Albans which the Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) had scheduled for felling on the grounds that it would be a safety hazard at the entrance to the underground car park for the new Civic Centre Opportunity Site South: https://timboatswain.wixsite.com/website/post/trees-over-traffic
Like me, you may have recently learnt that the felling of this lime tree is back on the County Council's agenda. This is bad news just when many of us hoped that the slogan 'Trees over Traffic' was gaining traction. I hope once more we will be able to persuade the Highways Roads and Pavements Department of the Hertfordshire County Council they should leave this tree alone. I have applied to the HCC for an e-petition to save this tree and await the officer's confirmation.
Trees Over Traffic (a road in Cambridge, sent to me by Cllr Jacqui Taylor)
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