Why we should all be rooting for trees to save us

They’re good for climbing, make pretty decent sun shades and when it comes to absorbing carbon dioxide, trees are hard to beat. However, a group of scientists and academics believe they do much more than lend a touch of leafy sophistication to England’s green and pleasant lands.

According to a growing body of evidence, trees are blessed with some miraculous powers. Not only can they lower blood pressure and make hospital patients recover quicker, but they can also help to boost property prices and, wait for it, reduce crime.

Among the advocates who believe trees could help us to redesign and redefine the way we live and work is Alan Simson, a reader in landscape architecture and urban forestry at Leeds Metropolitan University, who has, it’s fair to say, some rather unconventional views on how we should make use of trees and meadows.

Not only is Simson in favour of more radical management of our woodlands and forest, but he also wants to use wood to power public transport schemes – something he says would actually benefit the environment and lower carbon emissions; and he says the Government ought to ditch expensive projects like the controversial high-speed rail link (HS2). Instead he suggests the money should be invested in putting urban motorways and major trunk roads underground.

He’s not quite finished there. What Simson really wants is for local authorities to be more radical in their thinking on how we use trees in cities and believes that planting more of them could lower skin cancer rates and even get people to spend more.

But, first, back to one of his other claims, that trees can lower your blood pressure...

“Trees help us in all sorts of ways – they help to create a sense of pride on the local area, they are focal points, they increase property prices and even help reduce crime but one of the more interesting things they can do is have a positive impact on people’s mental and physical health,” he says.

“Various studies have shown that if you stand in a patch of greenery for just three minutes, you can lower your blood pressure. Other studies have proved a link between healing rates and people being given access to trees.”

He’s not wrong either. Numerous research projects, notably by Terry Hartig and Roger Ulrich, who advised the NHS on the development of new hospitals, have helped make the link between good health and trees an accepted fact. In one study, 23 hospital patients were assigned randomly to rooms that were identical except for the view from the window. Some looked over trees; the others faced out onto a brick wall.

Not only were those who spent their days with the “natural” view discharged earlier, but they also tended to suffer less from post-op headaches and nausea and required fewer painkillers.

Another report, this time by the Forestry Commission in 2009, suggested a link between mental wellbeing and patients who were given regular access to a countryside setting, while the NHS Forest website states: “Research has shown that patient recovery rates improve even if they can only view trees from their hospital window.”

Using trees to make ourselves more healthy is one thing but Mr Simson believes they have a multitude of other uses.

“Our forests aren’t working,” he says, matter-of-factly. “Many years ago when large areas of woodland were cut down, people would see these bald patches and think they looked ugly.

“It was an unpopular approach and in the end a different policy was adopted, to take out individual trees here and there.

“The only problem was forests are like us – as they get older they get slower, and their ability to store carbon dioxide (CO2) decreases. If you have a young patch of forest growing quickly, it absorbs more CO2.”

In many towns and cities the rapid development of the last couple of decades has left many green spaces under concrete. It’s a position that Simson says need to be reversed.

“When it comes to our cities, trees can be used to reduce wind speeds, filter dust, they can help reduce the “heat island” effect, they provide shade, lowering temperatures by up to 8C and that makes people more retail- friendly.” He also says planting more trees could help reduce skin cancer rates.

“They are much more aware of this on the Continent,” he says. “In this country, we tend to have plain white pavements and in the summer that reflects the heat. Studies have proven a link between higher skin cancer rates in the urban environment. Planting trees is one way to help tackle that.

“We need to get away from the idea that trees are just cosmetic, they can and do help improve our lives, even in cities like Leeds.

“We have to start re-evaluating what our green spaces are used for. If someone said to me now, let’s build a new park, I’d say, ‘what is a park?’, because it’s not what it used to be.

“City leaders might want to consider how much it costs to mow all that open grass and then compare that to how much it costs to manage a patch of woodland. Add in health benefits and you are talking about saving millions.

“There’s a lot of talk about the need for more houses – there’s a shortage of something like 216,000 – but some people are now starting to question the idea of the ‘compact city’. I would like to see more open green spaces near people’s houses. It’s the notion that if you give people a bit of space, they are better workers.”

Simson is now calling on city leaders in places like Leeds and Sheffield to take a leaf from proven green projects around the world, among them the New York High Line, a mile-long elevated “park” built on a disused section of railway.

He said: “It cost something like £115m to create but it has since generated around £2bn in revenues. The same thing is happening in Emscher Park, Germany, once one of the most polluted and industrialised regions in the world – it has been reborn by the planting each year since 1989 of over 1,000 hectares of trees and is now a major recreational area and a major centre for eco-commercial investment.

“Bristol has a project called TreeBristol, where they want to increase the number of trees by 30 per cent.”

If you thought that was the extent of Mr Simson’s radical views, think again. He has one last parting shot.

“The cost of HS2 keeps rising and the timetables get longer. Will we ever see it? Cities like Madrid have proved roads can be put underground, Boris Johnson is even considering this in London. Do we want to spend billions on HS2 or do we want to sort out public transport in Leeds?”

City poised to make hay by planting more wildflower meadows in parks

More wildflower meadows could soon become a prominent feature in Leeds parks.

A three-year-long study looking at the impact of wildflower meadows, involving 15 parks, is about to come to an end.

Dr Mark Goddard and Prof Bill Kunin, from the University of Leeds, were among those who led on the project.

Dr Goddard said: “The project was a collaboration between a number of universities. We set up a number of wildflower meadows, each about 300 square metres. Then we collected insects along the perimeter in a bid to work out whether they helped increase the population.”

“Certainly from my point of view, almost everyone I have come across has said they love meadows and they want them to stay. We don’t have the results in yet but we are expecting to see an increase in pollinators such as bees and hoverflies.”

Another project already under way is the planting of vegetables in and around green spaces which were previously just grassed.

Holbeck Urban Village project involves a range of improvements including the planting of ornamental pear trees and the sowing of wildflower meadows to encourage wildlife back into the area.

Prof Kunin, of Leeds’ School of Biology, said: “Meadows like these with nectar and pollen-rich plant species don’t just look nice, they can have economic benefits.”