I live in the suburbs (I know it sucks, but that’s just my current family situation.) and lately I’ve been trying to get outside more for my mental and physical health. The problem is, the suburbs are kind of shit for this. Obviously there’s all the car-centric infrastructure which makes walking more difficult and dangerous, but there’s not much I could conceivably do about that in any reasonable amount of time. However, the other big issue I’ve found, especially as it’s gotten so hot this summer, is there are barely any trees, and thus barely any shade anywhere along the sidewalks. Even the local park doesn’t have much shade aside from a small area in the corner. So it’s really unpleasant to walk anywhere. I get super sweaty even taking a leisurely walk on most days of the summer.
So I was thinking that maybe I could lobby the town to plant more trees such that most of the sidewalks are at least partially shady. I know there are some barriers to this like the tree roots cracking sidewalks and probably some NIMBYs who only view nature as being ornamental, and of course this would cost money to do. So it wouldn’t be a trivial thing, but I don’t think it’s entirely outside the realm of possibility either.
What do you think are some strategies I could use to make this happen? What sort of things do I need to do or account for? Obviously it’s going to be different depending on the town, but if there is any kind of general idea of how to go about this I would appreciate hearing it.
If your city has committee meetings that are open to the public, try to attend them if you can. If they allow for residents to ask questions or make requests, you can ask there.
Depending on the size of your city or town it might also have a parks and recreation department. If there is one, you can inquire there how you can go about adding more trees to enhance or expand green spaces.
Also, check any community boards you come across. There might be arborist groups that focus on stuff like this. Even if there isn’t one in your city, there might be one that focuses on the county or state (assuming you are in the US, if not, whatever larger land allotment applies to your country).
Basically it begins with networking. Try to find others that share the same desire for more trees and green spaces and the willingness to effect these positive changes, there is power in numbers.
Hope this helps :)
Contact your neighbors on FB and Nextdoor. The more taxpayers you have on your side the better chance you have. One person shouting will be ignored. Fifty people at a city council meeting will get noticed.
Trees are expensive to maintain, in addition to cracking sidewalks and roads, they need water, the leaves need to be cleaned up, they need to be trimmed, and they pose a liability risk so need to be covered by insurance.
Reach out to the Arbor Day foundation and see what kind of resources they can send you. There’s also a group called tree city USA that will give your municipality a gold star and a special sign and put them on a list if they have some number of trees. After you win trees you can fight for native wildflowers and reeds and become a bee city USA member too.
Getting shit done in local government is all about greasing your turd up so it flies out and lands with a triumphal plop. Almost all of that is planning and preparation because it’s not like you can reach up in there with both hands and rub castor oil on that stuck fucker.
So start by talking to people around you. Don’t tell them you’re planning on submitting some thing, just hear out what they have to say. Write it down afterwards so you can come back to it later. One thing people always bring up with trees is the cost and the damaged sidewalks and roads. It’s easy to figure out the cost, just call the municipal maintenance office and ask how much it would cost for them to take care of 200 more trees than they have to deal with now. Same thing for the sidewalks. Often times they’ll say something to the effect of “we’d have to replace em one year earlier than we were already planning on doing”.
Anyway figure out what you actually want to do, what it’s gonna cost, who’s gonna do it, what the effects will be, who’s it gonna piss off, how they’re gonna be ameliorated etc.
Once you have the effects of what you’re proposing all together you wanna bring it up to the right committee or board. For you the reason to do this as opposed to taking the tom goes to the mayor route is that the committee will have a bunch of people who can ask the right questions and get your turd perfectly shaped and lubricated. Once they like it they’ll do an up/down vote on a motion to move it to the governing body of the municipality.
The whole point of going through the committee is to take that path instead of having to be a person who gets on the nightly news yelling in meetings. It means your proposal will be part of the consent agenda, which is a bigass packet of “stuff we all agree on and have already decided to do” that gets a big up/down vote. People who have their stuff in the consent agenda might speak in support of their particular thing, but it’s usually more of a “we should all be proud that with the adoption of this proposal we’re increasing walkability, property values, safety, natural beauty and improving the lives of our community members” as opposed to “here’s my cockamamie scheme to plant trees!”.
Anyway that’s how you do it. Once the consent agenda you’re on gets passed you just gotta do what you said you were gonna in the way you said you were gonna using the resources you said it would take.
My area was hit by a derecho about 5 years back. We had 140+mph straight line winds for about an hour straight, and it devastated the area. A huge percentage of old growth trees got snapped like toothpicks. A couple years after, the city planted trees in all of the easement for a good portion of the residential area. Had to have been thousands of trees. I got 6 because I’m on a corner.
So my answer is have mother nature tear everything down then they may just do it.
The problem is mother nature tears down giant trees that provide shade (and look nice), and then the city replaces them with crape myrtle, purple-leaf plum, Bradford pear, and a whole bunch of other non-natives that dont grow tall enough to ever provide shade, and dont have any other benefit.
For sure. It was really sad to see 50’ tall oak trees broken in half. Fortunately for us, when they planted trees, they didn’t native species for our area. I think one of mine is an oak, a maple, and maybe a couple smaller trees. I have some red buds I planted myself that are starting to get big enough to provide shade for at least my dogs.
“The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is today.”
Officially - be the person. Be passionate and tireless. This isn’t about money - whips are cheap and if you can get some momentum behind socials then people will donate trees, tools and money.
Find what land your local council actually owns and visit it. See what’s possible. (No overhead lines, safe, easy access for pedestrians, soil conditions etc)
Then find out who’s responsible on your council and visit them. Make it easy for them - have lots of options, have the answers ready, make it clear there’s public demand. Most town officials have limited budget that’s already allocated, not much time, and are often not hugely motivated by yet another half-arsed proposal to spend both, so get it right. Be dogged, you’ll get brush offs and you’ll hear no a lot, so keep trying. Eventually you will connect with the right person at the right time and things will happen. The positive feedback then is pretty motivating and you’ll learn a lot of new skills.
Don’t expect universal support even from the public - a percentage of people will try to drag you down, or deliberately sabotage them. Forget them, or if they damage the trees, get the media in - the outcry will get you more momentum.
Obviously this is a lot of work, but it’s how stuff gets done.
If you can’t face that, I would understand it, and as guerilla gardening has already been mentioned, that’s absolutely a valid way too. Even just picking up rubbish on those walks is rewarding and beneficial.
