Urban forests and gardens don’t just improve air quality and the visual appeal of outdoor public spaces, they cool our cities, create wildlife habitats, and serve as protection against flooding all while providing jobs, tourism, and even food.
And with populations continuing to expand, it’s more important than ever to plant more plants and trees on urban lands. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) estimates that already nine million people die every year because of air pollution, and the United Nations projects that by 2050, 68% of the world’s population will live in cities – that’s 2.5 billion more people than today.
Trees Trump Towers
Multi-award-winning Associate Professor Justin Morgenroth of the University of Canterbury is the leader of the New Zealand Urban Forest Initiative and has been studying the vital role of trees in cities in Aotearoa and around the world.
“Urban forestry is in its infancy in New Zealand,” he tells Verve. “We’re just beginning to appreciate and understand the important roles that urban forests play in our cities and quality of life. I think part of the reason for that is historically low population pressures and mild climatic conditions, meaning our cities have always been considered lush and green.”
Expanding populations aside, Justin says that urban forests are also being threatened by lack of protection, climate change and development pressures. I ask if he feels new architectural developments are doing enough to incorporate green spaces.
“People need housing and trees provide the benefits that give a quality of life to urbanites,” he says. “Some of the debates I’ve seen recently seem to pit housing against trees as if the two cannot co-exist. I think it’s reductive and harmful to frame things in that way. We tend to focus our attention on developments where all vegetation is removed from site to create a blank canvas on which to build. But there are countless examples worldwide and within New Zealand of medium- and high-density housing developments that retain mature trees and greenspace.”
Justin would like to see the exploration of larger, coordinated developments to maximise shared greenspaces and preserve existing mature trees while leaving room for new plantings to mature over time.
Growing Pains
Xanthe White Design is a landscape studio that works on residential, community, and commercial projects in New Zealand and internationally, collaborating with architects and taking pride in serving as a “bridge between people and the natural world”. “We see our role as anchoring architecture into its surrounds,” says Xanthe. “A build can be hard on the land, and so our job is to restore the balance and weave it into the existing environment.”
Studies have shown a correlation between life expectancy, income equality, and access to green spaces. In cities around the world, wealthier suburbs tend to have more trees and public gardens, and those living in higher income areas can expect to live up to 10 years longer than those earning less.
“I can’t point the finger and say exactly what has created current tree cover inequities,” says Justin. “Present day patterns in urban forest cover are the result of decades of land management decisions by thousands of landowners, renters, and managers. In many instances, wealthy suburbs were established long ago, meaning that trees were planted many decades ago and have had the opportunity to grow to mature sizes.”
Wealthier suburbs also tend to be less cramped and have more available planting space, Justin adds, enabling them to support more trees and canopy: “Plus, representational inequities could lead to the observed distributional inequities. That is to say that affluent suburbs are more likely to be represented by people in positions who can exert power over urban forest decision making.”
But whether it be pushing to establish community gardens or simply putting in a bit more effort into our own balconies or backyards, we can all play our part in effecting change. In Auckland, 39% of tree canopy sits on public land, while the other 61% grows from privately owned space. “In a way,” says Justin, “each of those stakeholders is an urban forest manager making decisions about which species to plant and where.”
Xanthe believes landscape designers’ real role is “in people’s relationship with the land”. “A studio isn’t just a designers practice, it’s an active environment of teaching, testing, and learning where ideas grow and are shared,” she says. “People are realising that the act of gardening is where the pleasure is.
A beautiful landscape activates wellness, particularly in terms of mental health. Take it a step further into active gardening and it becomes a holistic cure for just about everything.”
