Green city
For more articles on similar topics, see the 04/2024 issue of A&B - GREEN CITY,
from which we publish the article below. Download free e-issues of A&B and read more.
"French insurers have valued 1 kilometer of mature avenue at €1 million, so I believe that a driver who drives into a tree and damages it should pay compensation. It's just that the tree is usually blamed for the accident. The driver is just its victim - even when he was drunk and speeding at an illegal speed. This thinking needs to be reversed." Ewa Karendys, an architect and urban planner, specialist in landscape architecture and history of garden art, talks to Katarzyna Rozmarynowska about trees in the city.
Ewa Karendys: A record warm February is behind us. Synopticians have calculated that such temperatures have not been seen in seventy years. How does this increase affect greenery in the city?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Very badly. The shortened dormancy period will mean that plants will not be able to regenerate and develop properly the following year. They will be weakened and more susceptible to disease in the spring.
Ewa Karendys: There are those who rejoice: "How beautiful, everything is starting to bloom!".
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: For greenery, however, this can have fatal consequences. Although February was very warm, the frost may come in the spring, and this risks damaging the awakening plants. This is not good for them at all. Did you know that due to climate change, the growing season is lengthening by 0.8 days per year?
Ewa Karendys: Seemingly not much, right?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: But over ten years it will accumulate a lot. We are already observing that trees in the city are finding it increasingly difficult to endure the deteriorating conditions - they are getting sick, their growth is stunted. Linden, maple, sycamore and chestnut trees, and even Swedish and other rowans are slowly withering away. Their planting in the city will have to be curtailed, and the search will begin for other tree species that will be better adapted to changing climatic conditions. This is already happening. Anyway, see how many new species of trees are planted in cities today.
Ewa Karendys: Indeed, we are hearing more and more about tree planting campaigns.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Many cities are doing it. And quite decently.
Ewa Karendys: But?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Not everyone understands why planting trees in cities is not easy and is not always effective. For that it is very expensive. Trees in the city require special treatment: proper preparation of the soil, fertilization, irrigation and so on. In the summer we are haunted by prolonged droughts, and we are unable to water the plants. Because with what? Water from the tap? No. We need to think of other solutions, such as reservoirs that collect rainwater when we have an excess of it. Trees in cities are extremely necessary. They lower the temperature, mitigate the adverse effects of heat islands, which are extremely dangerous for people. And we already know that temperatures will only rise.
Restoring the tree stand in downtown Gdynia
Photo: Przemysław Kozłowski ©gdynia.pl
Ewa Karendys: One would like to say: we built concrete squares in city centers, so now we have them.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: That's why today we have to look for a balance, a golden mean between the densification of cities and their green infrastructure.
Ewa Karendys: How do we reconcile this?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: It is not easy. New regulations are needed to force investors to plant more trees. Existing greenery provisions in local zoning plans need to be more strictly enforced. But new ways must also be sought.
Ewa Karendys: For example?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: You can bet on greenery that is easier to maintain. Many today laugh at the trend of planting trees in pots. But it's better than nothing. You can also use places that are currently undeveloped. Leave them semi-wild or create temporary gardens that can be shared with residents for the time being. Another option is gardens on balconies, rooftops of buildings and green walls - specially designed or covered with climbing plants. Incredibly, people still believe that covering building facades with vines will make the facade damp. This is a myth. Ivy absorbs water and therefore dries plaster. Anyway, it doesn't have to be ivy, but other fast-growing vines, planted on special supports, offset from the wall. Because any greenery in the city is useful.
Supports for climbing plants in the Promenade plantée René-Dumont park in Paris, created on a narrow railroad embankment, where it was not possible to plant trees
Photo: Katarzyna Rozmarynowska
Ewa Karendys: What species to plant to better cope with rising temperatures in times of climate crisis?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Definitely deciduous trees. What species, it remains to be seen. It is necessary to try. This is already being done in many cities. In historic locations, conservationists will probably oppose the introduction of previously unused species. But they will probably have no choice but to agree to the changes. After all, due to diseases today we hardly plant chestnut trees anymore. We see spruce and pine trees withering on a massive scale. There is no help for this, climate change will continue. We have to figure out how to adapt to them. And cities are already starting to prepare for it.
Ewa Karendys: Is that the case?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: In Gdansk, for example, the Gdansk Charter for Trees is being developed, which will introduce huge changes in the treatment of greenery in the city. It will contain standards for both designers and contractors. It will set directions and ways of dealing with urban greenery. This is a good course of action. The project has been solidly prepared and supported by the latest research, the opinions of community representatives and specialists from various centers have been taken into account. We will be able to learn more about the solutions adopted in the charter soon.
Ewa Karendys: It sounds great, but it certainly takes a lot of time and money for such activities, and with that it sometimes varies.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: That's true, but there is no way out. This is about health. If the trees are gone, and we start getting forty-degree heat in the summer, people will die. The temperature on the top floors of buildings will become unbearable. Therefore, whether we want it or not, we need to spend more money on greenery. Fortunately, today cities are slowly beginning to think better about greenery and take into account its presence, as evidenced by the work on the Gdansk Charter for Trees.
Ewa Karendys: Until now we have been doing it a bit blindly?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: There was a lack of specialists. Even if officials knew that a cutting had to be done, they put out a tender - and what? A gentleman with a saw would come in, who didn't know anything about it at all.
Ewa Karendys: Because his company made the cheapest bid.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Yes, but it should have been done by specialists. Unfortunately, there are not enough of them today. We don't have many landscape architects or dendrologists who know about trees. For many years such people were not trained at all. We mainly had foresters who specialized in timber or gardeners who could produce gerberas on a hectare of land. Besides, landscape architecture was treated as a shambles, because until recently investors were mainly interested in an empty plot of land that they could build on intensively. Even historic parks were becoming victims of such thinking.
Ewa Karendys: In Gdansk there has been talk for years about saving the Great Linden Alley, which has its origins in the 18th century, running along Zwycięstwa Avenue. Its condition is getting worse and worse.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Trees have varying lifespans, as do people. The trouble is that in urban conditions the lifespan of trees is very shortened. A linden tree, which can live up to seven hundred years in the forest, will live up to two hundred and fifty in the city. And the Great Linden Avenue is already living to that age. Fortunately, its condition has improved somewhat in recent years. Winters have been light, not so much salt has been poured, and since the tunnel under the Dead Vistula River was put into service, heavy traffic already bypasses this part of the city.
The roots of the Great Linden Avenue, which today awaits revaluation, date back to 1768-1770
Photo: Piotr Wittman
Ewa Karendys: But sooner or later there will be a cutback. Residents will find it hard to accept.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Cutting down? Not necessarily. Everything depends on how we prepare for the revaluation. Residents should be prepared for the changes beforehand, explain why such a way of doing things has been adopted and not another. Today, for various reasons, about ten or so trees are lost annually. If they continue to disappear at this rate, in ten years there will be a hundred fewer. The avenue used to have 1,414 trees, at the moment - 596 trees, including only about 300 from the first plantings.
Ewa Karendys: Not much.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: That's true, that's why time is pressing. We do not yet know what method of revaluation will be chosen. For example, in the 1970s the four-row avenue of Herrenhäuser in Hanover was restored. All the trees were cut down, and new ones were planted in their place. Although it looks beautiful today, in Gdansk we will certainly not decide to act so radically. We already know what can be done. It's also a big step forward. In 2019, the avenue was thoroughly surveyed. Measures are now being implemented to prolong its life.
The restoration of the avenue will be a long process. Also because it will be necessary to plant large trees, grown in nearby nurseries, which will increase the chance of success. Their preparation is about twenty years. So time is needed.
The Great Linden Alley in Gdansk is the oldest four-row downtown avenue in Poland and preserved to this day
Photo: Piotr Wittman
Ewa Karendys: Today the avenues are strongly written in the consciousness of residents. An example is the recent protest against the cutting of almost 800 trees in Kashubia, in the buffer zone of the Słupia Valley Landscape Park. The avenue is to go under the axe to make room for a road expansion.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Until the middle of the 20th century, roadside trees didn't bother anyone. It wasn't until fast cars started driving on the roads that trees began to be seen as a problem. All over Europe they began to be blamed for road accidents. Meanwhile, statistics do not support this. There are more fatal accidents on roads where trees have been cut down, as they tend to be driven faster. Roadside avenues also have their measurable value, which is not appreciated in Poland. And it is large, for example, French insurers have valued 1 kilometer of mature avenue (spacing every 12 meters) at 1 million euros, so I believe that a driver who drives into a tree and destroys it should pay compensation. It's just that the tree is usually blamed for the accident. The driver is only its victim - even if he was drunk and speeding at an excessive, unauthorized speed. This thinking needs to be reversed. The accident is not the fault of the tree, it is the fault of the man who endangered himself and, in the process, destroyed the common property, which is an alley tree.
Ewa Karendys: The local authorities justify the aforementioned cutting of trees in Kashubia on the grounds of improved access, "comfort and safety," among other things. In return, new plantings would appear.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: The road is of course needed, but there are other options. It does not necessarily have to be the cutting down of valuable historic trees. Especially since not all roads need to be driven at top speed. The decision to cut down should take into account the value of the avenue in all its aspects. At the same time, one should not forget the people who years ago put tremendous effort into creating and financing roadside alleys, in order for them to perform functions: aesthetic, ecological or informational. Anyway, they still perform them.
Residents and activists oppose the cutting of nearly 800 trees in Kashubia, in the buffer zone of the Slupia Valley Landscape Park
Photo: Dariusz Paciorek
Ewa Karendys: Are investors today more aware of how important greenery is?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: There are few good examples. Usually plots of land are built up too much, not enough space is left for greenery. There is not enough space for trees, which need quite a lot of free space. Investors follow the line of least resistance, first they cut down the existing trees because they interfere with construction, and then they plant some bushes, some grass. And they say, "there you go, we have greenery!".
Yes, the landscape is constantly changing, but the point is that these changes go in the right direction. Germans started protecting their landscapes as early as the mid-19th century. In Gdansk, the City Beautification Society at the time insisted on a ban on cutting down trees in the Oliwa Forest for landscape reasons.
Ewa Karendys: Unfortunately, there are still many examples of trees being cut down on a massive scale. A few years ago, 4 hectares of forest were cut down in Leba. A hotel was to be built on the plot, nothing came out of the investment in this location, another was chosen, in Pobierowo, where 1500 trees went under the axe, right on the Baltic Sea. What do you think, listening to such reports?
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: That it is barbarism, lack of awareness of the value and role that trees play, appropriation and destruction of something that belongs to everyone.
Ewa Karendys: But such an investor will immediately say that, after all, he cut down on his own plot, for which he paid millions.
Katarzyna Rozmarynowska: Then I will ask: so what? Yes, the investor owns what he builds himself. However, he owns neither the water, nor the air, nor the natural resources beneath the surface of his plot. Nor does he own the view of his building. This is because this one is public property. For this reason, development is subject to various regulations that protect the interests of all of us. Interestingly, the right to protect the view appeared as far back as antiquity. In Roman legislation there was a provision that if someone builds a house, he can not obstruct his neighbor's view of the garden, sea, mountains or public paintings. Hard to believe, isn't it?
Ewa Karendys: Thank you for the interview.
interviewed: Ewa Karendys
illustrations: ©Katarzyna Rozmarynowska
