New York’s Cities and Parks Department recently published a figure that suggested they had calculated a benefit of $122m to the people of New York City from the trees there. We have written previously about the enormous value of the biophillic effect caused by green trees and plants and of being out in nature, and of course, New York’s Central Park is well known of as the “lung” of that city.
Council tree removal
Unfortunately the positive effect of trees in large cities is apparently not appreciated in the northern town of Sheffield. The council has started a programme of removing as many as 18000 trees over the next 25 years and has already removed 1000 trees in recent months as part of a £2.2billion pound contract.
Many of the trees have been identified as having wider heritage and/or scientific value, to say nothing of the health and well-being benefits that have been well researched.
Why do councils remove trees?
Clearly, when trees are dead, dying or dangerous, pruning or felling works must sometimes be undertaken for the wider safety of people and property. Sheffield City Council also use two further “Ds” to identify where works are required: Discriminating trees, and Damaging trees – interesting terms and we will learn what they mean in a later blog post!
