Appreciating the trees in the woods

TREES have been with us for some 300 million years but how do we define a tree? According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Global Tree Specialist Group, “a tree is a woody plant with usually a single stem growing to a height of at least two metres, or if multi-stemmed, then one vertical stem should be five centimetres in diameter at breast height”. Such a vague definition bemuses me, for how high are we to gauge the height of a multi-stemmed tree?

This year is a milestone in arboreal studies for the first ever global count has revealed that there are now a staggering 60,065 different tree species worldwide. This the first authoritative list of tree species that has ever been published. This list draws upon the discovery, collection and description of tens of thousands of plant species and is the work of centuries of botanists. The many authors of this report appreciate that this list is not endless as further research and discovery continues.

A type of league table of world tree numbers of species identified in each country has been established. Brazil exceeds all nations with 8,715 different species, followed in second place by Colombia (5,776) and Indonesia (5,142) is ranked third. Malaysia is ranked fourth (4,993). Clearly tropical and subtropical countries lead the world with a total of 20,000 species assessed for conservation status and as many as 9,600 of these are threatened with extinction.

This report also identifies the top 10 countries with the largest number of endemic tree species. Brazil again heads the list with 4,333 species. Second spot goes to Madagascar (2,991), third – Australia (2,584), fourth – China (2,149), followed in fifth place by Malaysia (1,520).

In the total number of tree species table, the UK can only boast 54 different species. However, trees are highly prized there, especially in urban areas, with tree preservation orders slapped on many a tree which can only be felled if diseased or else causing a safety problem to the public. I should like to take the reader on a short journey to look at what I consider to be the two greenest cities in the world, one in Europe and one in Southeast Asia.

Sheffield

I have always had an affection for the city of Sheffield for both my son and ‘foster’ daughter were educated at the university there, with one reading Japanese and the other Medicine. They, as students, enjoyed their time in that city’s leafy groves.

Sheffield is the third largest city in the UK with a population of 1.6 million inhabitants. It can boast that 61 per cent of its city’s area is green space, with its 250 parks and resplendent Botanic Gardens. One third of the city’s western boundary lies within the Peak District National Park – a rugged moorland, wilderness landscape with deep cultivated valleys and tree clothed reservoir hillsides. Sheffield has been declared quite rightly as the UK’s greenest city with its two million trees and the highest ratio of trees to people of any European city but all are not happy in some parts of the city.

In one area of the city, the residents are protesting against the city council’s decision for a road widening scheme to accommodate ever-increasing traffic flow. The roots of old but still beautiful trees are breaking up the pavements but pedestrians never complain about this. Many of the trees are destined to be removed by the contractors who guarantee a replacement sapling for every one felled but not necessarily in the area of felling.

By last November, over 4,000 trees had been felled in that year alone. One avenue is graced by hundreds of trees that were planted in 1919 in memory of the students, from a local school, who lost their lives for their country in World War 1. What has taken nearly 100 years to grow to maturity can be felled by a chainsaw in less than two minutes. One must remember that in a temperate climate, a tree, from its sapling stage to full maturity, takes about 100 years to grow.

Sheffield’s numerous parks were created from 1801 to 1901 when its population, in that time, rose from 60,000 to 450,000. This was during the expansion of the steel making industry which earned Sheffield the title ‘World’s steel centre’. Today, Sheffield stainless steel is still widely acclaimed in cutlery manufacture but all apart from one of the once many city steelworks have closed down. These parks were originally created to provide ‘urban lungs’ for those who worked in industrial pollutant atmospheres with the chance for the workforce to breathe fresh air and relax at weekends with their families away from the heat of the steelworks and the terraced streets, with minute gardens, where families lived.

In the early 1990s, during the economic slump in the UK, the government withdrew subsidies from the local metropolitan councils’ budgets for the maintenance of public parks. Many a city’s parks became overgrown with weeds and climbing strangler plants such as ivy. Loving their parks dearly, the citizens of Sheffield went about raising the necessary capital, with the aid of philanthropists, for the maintenance expenditure on the parks for what Sheffield people felt were of community benefit. In 2017, the people’s fight to protect their trees continues … hopefully democracy will prevail.

Lessons from Kuching

Together with the relatively new ‘Garden City of Shenzen’ in China and Singapore, I have always regarded Kuching as one of Asia’s greenest cities. Certainly, Kuching was not submitted to the same degree of Allied bombing as Kota Kinabalu in World War 2 and this is a contributory factor to its greenscape.

Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) has set a fine example for many cities to follow. In creating new roads and widening others, for much the same reasons as Sheffield, the contractors here have promised DBKU to plant three saplings for every tree felled. In our tropical climate, these saplings will fast mature.

With an estimated 80,000 trees to maintain and to ‘doctor’ to ensure the health and safety provisions for pedestrians and motorists, and the public’s frequent visits to parks, DBKU’s provision is a model for other cities to follow worldwide. Like Sheffield, NGO activities in fundraising, through youth groups, sponsorship schemes and, indeed, philanthropists, have maintained the greenery of Kuching.

Just visit the top of the tower at the civic centre and take in the 360-degree panoramic view over the greater city and you will see what I mean.

DBKU aims to plant 1,000 trees each year. Can any other city council match or even contemplate exceeding this? As you walk or drive north and south of the Sarawak River, do open your eyes to the tree-scape which lies before you at any time of the year. I never cease to be amazed by the diversity of tree species in such a relatively small area of our planet. May such care for our urban trees long continue.

For further reading on the latest of tree species worldwide go to www.tandfonline.com or www.bgci.org.