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Cities need more trees

herman.bearblog.dev

1–10 of 169 posts

Re: Cities need more trees

#2
I understand that tall trees a threat to capital and maybe also to human life when one falls over near a house, but do we really need to chop them down?

Can we not add metal struts between a house and a tall tree, to reinforce its strength, rather than preemptively cut it every time?

Re: Cities need more trees

#3
Lots of chopping trees seems to come from a laziness of thinking, where certain people in the city adminsitration are just used to the idea "trees cause costs". They never think any further about benefits beyond finances.

Re: Cities need more trees

#4
I think the department in charge of maintaining roads should also be put in charge of maintaining trees. Any time a road needs to be widened, make provisions for planting (or better) transplanting trees, including watering infrastructure.

Re: Cities need more trees

#5
post #2

I understand that tall trees a threat to capital and maybe also to human life when one falls over near a house, but do we really need to chop them down? Can we not add metal struts between a house and a tall tree, to reinforce its strength, rather than preemptively cut it every time?

Unfortunately the decision is often made based on costs, and chopping them down is cheaper than employing an arborist (?) to make sure the tree is reinforced properly.

Please don't get me wrong, I agree with you. In many historic cities, there are trees that are hundreds of years old. There are trees that have been around since before the invention of the telegraph, lived through 2 world wars and are still going strong! There are efforts to keep these alive, but I feel newly planted trees won't get the chance to live that long :(

Re: Cities need more trees

#6
I recently visited Tbilisi in Georgia which is also almost a city within a forest. It is very nice and something I would wish upon any city.

However, it does take it toll on buildings and infrastructure.

I wonder what Johannesburg spends per tree in not just cutting and leaf collection but also in addition road and pavement repairs and I’m sure there is more than one foundation that has been damaged by roots.

Re: Cities need more trees

#7
post #2

I understand that tall trees a threat to capital and maybe also to human life when one falls over near a house, but do we really need to chop them down? Can we not add metal struts between a house and a tall tree, to reinforce its strength, rather than preemptively cut it every time?

Simpler/better to plant a new tree.

Re: Cities need more trees

#8
> You can still see a stark difference between rich and poor neighbourhoods to this day based purely on tree cover.

You can see that here in Sydney. The poorer Western Sydney suburbs have a noticeable lack of tree coverage when compared with the richer inner west, northern, and eastern suburbs.

I don't know which direction cause and effect goes. It is plausible that affluent suburbs can afford to plant trees, but it is also plausible, especially here in Australia, that trees lead to nicer climates that are more appealing to folks who can afford it.

Re: Cities need more trees

#9
Trees are nothing but obstacles to traffic. If you take a good look at cities, you will see that they were built for cars, and cars alone. Anything that's not a car has no place in a city.

Re: Cities need more trees

#10
post #2

I understand that tall trees a threat to capital and maybe also to human life when one falls over near a house, but do we really need to chop them down? Can we not add metal struts between a house and a tall tree, to reinforce its strength, rather than preemptively cut it every time?

Too much KSP?
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