Leadership needed on trees

Julian Kennedy’s article “Development stumped” (Westside News, 8 November) revealed a disappointing lack of civic leadership from both sides of the Brisbane City Council on the importance of planting trees. Our city is growing rapidly in population and is increasing its density through infill and smaller blocks in greenfield areas – steadily reducing public space per person available for outdoor exercise and fitness activities and environmental amenity. Alarmingly, Brisbane is also becoming hotter and drier through climate change. Trees are critical to protecting our quality of life. We need to value and preserve existing trees and plant many more now where open space is available. Council’s Open Space Strategy document, published in Your City Your Say, October 2006, notes that “many of [Brisbane’s valued biodiversity, recreational and scenic amenity] assets exist on freehold land in private ownership, adding complexity to how we plan and manage the city’s open space.” It says that “retaining trees in private lands is critical to maintaining a leafy, green, subtropical character for Brisbane”, and further, “Council believes that retaining private tree cover and making new spaces for trees within new residential developments is essential.” Indeed – but where is the leadership to see this implemented? Good tree cover brings a substantial economic return, as well as benefiting the living and physical environment and – by no means least! – lifting the human spirit. Trees reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, abating greenhouse warming. They reduce air pollution. They reduce stormwater runoff, preventing loss of topsoil, preventing harmful pollutants from entering our waterways, increasing the absorption of water, keeping the soil damp for longer, allowing for slower release of water into creeks and waterways, thereby protecting water catchments. They keep the air cooler. They provide habitat for animals, birds and other living things – and are we not stewards of the living as well as the physical environment? They also make the environment much more attractive and enjoyable to us. Brisbane City Council’s Urban Heat Island Map shows the most densely treed areas of Brisbane being over 2 degrees cooler than the average for the metropolitan area. By cooling the whole environment, and especially when planted so as to shade buildings, they greatly reduce the need for air conditioning. This cuts property owners’ energy bills, slows the need for capital works to expand electricity generation capacity, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by lowering the need for (coal-fired) electricity. The local authority of Sacramento, California views one tree as being equal to 5 room air conditioners running 20 hours per day. This represents millions of dollars in annual cooling costs. Dense tree cover creates an excellent baffle against noise, as well as giving desirable ‘character’ to suburbs fortunate enough to have it. And of course, the presence of tree corridors and large trees lifts property values. If Laurel Avenue, Chelmer had its huge trees removed, its average property values would undoubtedly fall by hundreds of thousands of dollars! Trees confer still more benefits on human health and behaviour. There is strong evidence that a green and leafy environment engenders lower levels of fear and violent and aggressive behaviour. Patients in hospital recover more quickly when they can look at a view of nature. Office workers are more productive, have higher job satisfaction and take fewer sick days. Shoppers will also stay longer and spend more on their shopping in tree-lined shopping areas. Trees give us both micro and macro benefits. The micro ones relate to our immediate environment: our sense of peace, beauty, pleasantness of where we live, our property values, and energy bills. The macro or ‘big picture’ values are hugely important also but in the current situation are at risk of being ignored. Climate change is upon us and it is vital for both sides of Council to show leadership in creating a ‘carbon sink’ in South-East Queensland. It is disgraceful for Council to withhold action to protect existing tree cover and expand it where possible, out of concern that affected property owners might resort to ‘panic clearing’, as Westside News reported. If the State Government can legislate to prevent unauthorized land clearing in rural areas, can’t a combination of it and Council do the same within the Greater Brisbane area? What is needed is strong leadership at all levels – a commitment to influence the public perception about the value of trees. We may need a debate about the common good and how this can be reconciled with maintaining individual rights. Our leaders must promote a culture that values and protects trees, rather than one where people are either afraid of them or consider them of nuisance value. from an article submitted by the Taringa Trees group to Brisbane's local WestSide News newspaper, November 2006. It was published in part in the edition of 29 November. For further information, contact David Truman on 0422 076 079, or e-mail truman7 [AT] westnet com au.