Re-purposing trees?

If you find yourself in Hawaii with some time to kill [April 30], pop along to the Sheraton, Waikiki and take in the Western Chapter Conference – there is a great line-up of local and international speakers, and I’ll be there as well…  I get to give another take on my ‘Trees in a Changing Environment’ talk, it’s an oldie, but a goodie – I enjoy it and fingers crossed others will as well

TUESDAY, 4.30.2019, 1:15:00 PM.  GENERAL SESSION

Mark Roberts – Trees in a Changing Environment

Change is the only constant; we are aware of it, we see it and it happens all around us. Former warehouse precincts become trendy inner-city living, poorer suburbs become gentrified, dead parts of towns are revitalized, and even entire cities are reworked to become something new – what once was may not be what is now and most likely will be something different in the future. Buildings can be re-purposed, but what about the trees?

Trees in a Changing Environment is about how we manage trees and how we have to manage trees as the environment in which they grow changes around them.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 60% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2030. There is and will be increased pressure on space, and the ‘place’ that an urban tree grows in is likely to completely change two or three times during the life of the tree – the concept of ‘right tree in the right place’ is only valid at the time of planting.

With the introduction of standards and best practice, we have limited what can be done, and we risk losing trees through the process of trying to preserve them. In our attempt to improve the quality of tree care and return to natural principals we seem not to be able to see the elephant in the room; there is nothing natural about a tree growing in a city.

Trees are great survivors, and we are great manipulators of trees – together we have been doing this for thousands of years. If we are to have urban trees, we need to be able to re-purpose them, and over the course of a tree’s life, it may need to be re-purposed several times.

Not liking or embracing change are choices that we can make, but they are not options for our urban trees. Trees don’t think, they respond; change will happen, and trees will respond; as arborists, we need to ask ourselves are, we following or are we leading?