Here's A Tree In Winter
Tree spotting as winter arrives. A full subscribers's post, with preview for all.
Sheffield is now a ‘Tree City of the World’ (along with 25 other UK towns and cities), a designation from the Arbor Day Foundation to mark cities and their trees getting themselves organised to support each other. Which we certainly needed to do after events of a few years ago.
One of the designation’s standards is to host an ‘annual celebration of trees.’ We have a few of these in Sheffield, thanks to the many tree supporters across a city said to host at least seven trees for every resident. That’s more than any other city in Europe, according to our civic marketing.
Last week saw the Sheffield Street Tree Partnership’s Urban Tree Festival, part of the UK’s National Tree Week. So I took a stroll round the trees of two contrasting city environments, with two contrasting city environmentalists.
Gerry Firkins from Sorby Natural History Society took me on a winter tree tour of Whirlow Brook Park, to learn a few tips about how to identify some native (and imported) trees during the winter months.
And Paul Selby of NESST (Nether Edge and Sharrow Sustainable Transformation) took a dozen of us to find nearly 70 young trees settling in to life in Sharrow, thanks to local donations helping to raise nearly £200,000 for street tree planting.
Seeing so many new trees on gritty urban streets as a result of the relentless work of fellow Sheffielders was rather wonderful.
But there are still debates: how to balance native species and non-natives that might suit the more extreme climate we now have, along with trees that people say just look nice. How to avoid digging up something rare and wonderful that’s there already. Whether planting new trees on urban streets is always a good idea. How to keep street trees growing and flourishing when there’s no sign (yet) of new government funding for such basic amenities.
I met a prehistoric Dawn Redwood on both visits. (The trees themselves were less than eighty years old, but the species has a very, very, long and unique history).
Until the late 1940s, this tree from the time of the later dinosaurs was preserved only in fossil records. Then a stunned explorer discovered a small grove of oblivious Dawn Redwoods alive and well in China, and sent samples to Harvard University. Harvard quickly launched their own post-war, pre-People’s Republic collecting team to gather seeds from central China, and then sent them out around the world.
Some eventually landed in the hands of excited Sheffield gardeners who planted one at Whirlow. More recently, a city planter decided a new student flats development behind Aldi also needed a tree from at least 50 million years ago. It’s now growing like mad, and may soon be taller than the flats.
Should an ancient tree from Sichuan province be growing near Bramall Lane? Well, it might crack the pavements, but it looks rather nice, and the ‘amenity’ value of street trees shouldn’t be overlooked. Gerry Firkins observes:
“Dawn Redwoods are a great street tree. They need little maintenance, they’re pollution tolerant, good in wind and frost, fast growing, and a neat form. But they aren’t small, so they’re not good for a tight space.”
(Have a look next time you’re passing the Furnival Square roundabout. There are a dozen Dawn Redwoods there too, says Gerry).
We have more on all this below for our wonderful full subscribers. But for people still on their free trial, Gerry suggests this book on winter tree identification.
For people wanting to plant urban trees and improve your green spaces, look here for details of tree planting options. And Paul Selby hopes our cash-strapped council will, one day soon, make it easier to bring our neglected urban neighbourhoods back to life alongside all the local volunteers ready and willing to help.
For the full feature, it’s just £4 a month to join the 250+ full members of our social enterprise. Producing It’s Looking A Bit Black Over Bill’s Mother’s takes time, money, and hours of hassling, hustling, writing, researching and photographing, so it’s pocket money well spent, we think. Upgrade to paid, or start your free trial below.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to It's Looking A Bit Black Over Bill's Mother's to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.