Philip Hewett tells us why it really is good for us to take a stroll in the park (preferably one filled with trees). For the tree at your doorstep is the forest in your mind.

Why do so many of us want to live in cities?” asks Dr Cecil Konijnendijk, Danish researcher and leader of the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO) research group. “People are social animals, like ants, but why do we seemingly prefer ant-heaps of concrete, steel and tarmac over the rolling hills of the countryside?”

“Cities are places where a certain energised crowding of people takes place”, says architectural historian Spiro Kostof in his book ‘The City Shaped’. He concluded his work on city design by expressing his admiration for the city as a human phenomenon: “the city is one of the most remarkable, one of the most enduring of human artefacts and human institutions”.

Dr Konijnendijk points to the way the city has always been put into the perspective of its good and bad sides. The bad city, according to the philosopher Thoreau, is the place where “millions of people are feeling lonely together,” whereas the perspective of the good side sees cities as centres of learning, transmitting accumulated knowledge on which future achievements can be built.

Today, most of the world’s cities are expanding at an alarming rate. As recently as 1960 two-thirds of humanity still lived in rural areas but by 2005 half of the world’s population was urban. By 2025 the UN estimates two-thirds of humanity will be urban. This is an unprecedented global boom and Australia is leading as one of the world’s most urbanised countries with more than 80 percent now urbanised with the figure rising. This is putting enormous pressure on the natural systems that underpin the proper functioning of our cities and is causing unprecedented tree canopy loss, as waterways, bushland, parks, street tree populations and private gardens all give way to the development juggernaut.

American researchers report that tree cover in many US urban areas has declined by 30% in 20 years while the population’s urban footprint has increased by 20%. Such decline in tree cover means a massive increase in the costs of managing storm water and air quality. This is not the only cost according to social researchers who say declining community health and increasing crime and domestic violence are also products of rapid de-greening.

Unfortunately our civic leaders have not been impressed by the ecological, social and cultural benefits of urban trees, treating them as optional elements. Social researcher Frances Kuo of the University of Illinois, speaking on a recent ABC Radio Program - All in the Mind, says policy makers have treated green space and green elements in their urban environment as an amenity; nice if you can afford it but if you can’t afford it there’s no real harm in having a city that has no vegetation, has no contact with nature.

Dr Jane Tarran of the University of Technology, Sydney, reviewed social research into the relationship between people and nature. She found that generally, people do indeed prefer natural environments to other settings and that people experience far greater benefits than mere enjoyment. American social researchers Rachel and Stephen Kaplan found that nature has the power to be restorative and calming, to allow people to recover from mental fatigue, which results from our attempts to manage vast amounts of information. Symptoms of mental fatigue include difficulty in focussing, risk-taking activity, impatience and irritability.

Nature allows people to become comfortable, civil and effective once again, and it’s not just the sensational or extraordinary landscapes that are important - the ordinary, close at hand landscapes - the ‘nearby nature’ or ‘the tree at your doorstep’ is equally, if not more important. The view of greenery outside the office or school window has significant mental health benefits.

The benefits of a nearby tree, or of the entire urban forest which is the totality of vegetation growing throughout the city and its suburbs, have yet to be seriously studied in Australia, but change is coming. In 2003 the NSW Local Government Association adopted Australia’s first urban forest policy, followed soon after by a similar South Australian policy. Newcastle Council has adopted an urban forest policy and is developing an action plan to draw public and private landholders together with a common goal to improve community health and the health and extent of the city’s urban forest. Future projects include aerial photo interpretation to measure canopy cover and the rate of loss resulting from urbanisation, and quantifying the costs and benefits of urban tree canopy.

So the scientific word is out – nearby trees and urban forest are important for community health benefits. You don’t have to wait until the next long weekend or holiday to take a healthy break from the grind – find a tree-lined avenue that passes by a treed park, other natural area or treed gardens and experience the calming benefits of nearby nature. You don’t have to walk at a furious pace either; in fact it is better for your mental well-being if you dawdle, which is the slow, mindful pace of ‘walking meditation’ and is the proper pace for feeling free to look around. This is the pace when the trance of looking and noticing can overtake your errand, your small sense of self-importance; and this is the pace in which the inventory of loved things has a chance to grow. If you are blessed with regular contact with young children you may have noticed, perhaps to your irritation, that this is the pace of young children because they are engrossed in a world that adults have long forgotten. Dawdling is the pilgrim’s wisdom.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t have beautiful tree-lined avenues and tree-studded parks close by that we can dawdle amongst. But given the research findings on the health benefits of trees, it’s worth thinking about how to make our children’s immediate locality more healthy and walkable, perhaps by planting and protecting trees or by lobbying civic leaders for more trees and greater tree space. In the meantime, happy dawdling!

Philip Hewett has managed municipal trees and taught arboriculture for over 25 years. He is City Arborist at Newcastle Council and a member of the NSW Local Government Association Urban Forest Policy Working Group. This is Part One of a two-part Read & React series by Phil on the values and benefits of urban forests and green-space in our urbanised society.

Source: Outdoor Australia