Change is the only constant

Choosing optimal and suitable trees for the right location, is a concept most arborists and tree mangers refer to as, ‘the right tree in the right place’. When Leon Minckler wrote ‘The right tree in the right place’ in 1941 the concept wasn’t necessarily new. Minckler’s focus was trees commercial forestry, but the principles described could be equally applied to all tree planting situations and the right tree in the right place quickly became the mantra for arborists and those managing our urban forests.

As a concept, selecting the right tree for the right place is completely valid at the time of planting, but what happens if the place changes?

The average of averages (depending on where you take your numbers) has the lifespan of an urban tree at 32 years. When I teach report writing and/or tree assessment I acknowledge that I include a ‘used by’ date on what I write. There are some clarifiers and exclusion comments associated with the used by date and sometimes it varies, but 3-years is about as long as I am normally comfortable with. I use 3-years not because I can’t predict what may or may not happen with the tree, but because I can’t predict what may or may not happen with everything else. There are just too many independent variables and a whole heap of unknowns that could impact or influence the tree.

So, what has this to do with the right tree in the right place? The right tree for the right place is completely valid at the time of planting, but what happens if the place changes; what happens when the right place becomes the wrong place – because it most likely will.

We know that land-use patens have changed and based on the prediction that 60% of the Earth’s population will live in urban areas by 2030, land-use will continue to change. We also know that trees can’t move, therefore some of that change is going to happen in and around our trees; it is unlikely that that right place will remain the right place for the entire life on an urban tree.

If our urban trees are to survive they must be able to be managed and manipulated as the land that they grow in changes. Arborists and those that managing our urban forests also need to change – we need to stop trying to manage our urban trees as if they were growing in a natural environment. We need to change our pruning standards to reflect and accept that natural form (assuming such a form even exists), isn’t the only form a tree can have – but most of all, we need to change what we do faster than the land around our trees changes.

Change is the only constant, and to save our urban trees we need to change how we manage them.