Mercury, Hobart, October 29 2026
A line of newly planted street trees off Salamanca Place were in fleshy new leaf when I arrived back from a trip to Britain this month. It was not just a sign that spring had finally sprung while I had been away – a global street-tree campaign had firmly taken root in Hobart.
The sight of the large palmate leaves of the young tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipitera) was in sharp contrast to the streets of London where I had been 24 hours earlier. There the deciduous trees were in the throes of autumn, shedding golden and copper leaves which littered the wet pavements.
Observing urban tulip and plane trees at different ends of the earth, in different seasons, was entirely appropriate. My trip to northern Britain had in part been inspired by street trees after I had read a report that the industrial city of Sheffield had been transformed by an internationally acclaimed street-tree program.
Sheffield was already on my itinerary as the base for a walking tour of the nearby Peak District where I once worked on a hill farm. I thought though I’d take a look at what is still termed “steel city” although the steel works have long gone. It now has another moniker – the “tree capital” of Europe.
I thought a city with around 4.5 million trees – seven trees per resident – might hold lessons for a greener Hobart but as the newly planted trees in Gladstone Street demonstrated, Hobart is already ahead of the game with a tree-planting program of its own.
Under an ambitious street-tree strategy Hobart Council has implemented a plan to increase urban tree canopy cover to 40 per cent by 2046, from its current 16.7 per cent. The strategy includes community engagement to prioritise planting areas and ensure the sustainability of street trees across the city. All this while the city also manages approximately 20,000 trees in streets and parks, focusing on maintaining their health and safety.
It’s easy to regard street trees as a separate issue to trees in parks or natural green spaces that border urban and suburban areas. There are parallels between the two, however. An appreciation of trees and an acknowledgement of their worth to both the general environment and to human mental and physical health is also reflected in the streetscape.
Along with being famous for the cutlery that carried the Sheffield steel hallmark, Sheffield in more modern times has been noted for its fine tree-lined boulevards. But as the steel mills closed in the face of competition from Asia the city fell on less prosperous times. There was less money to spend on maintaining its street trees and older ones were removed instead of being replaced.
Disquiet in the community reached a head when the city council gave the go-ahead for the removal of 11 elegant lime trees along a modest street, Rustlings Road. But from an acorn of complaints an oak tree of a protest movement grew. What appeared at first a parochial issue only involving a group of residents and the Sheffield City Council suddenly spiralled into a “war of the trees” which would span a decade. It ended with a compromise with residents accepting the felling and replacement of a small number of trees, whose roots had been found to be causing potholes and damaging pavements. But in the process sprang a global movement, spreading to virtually every major town and city in the world.
The tussle demonstrated how urban trees were both treasured and in jeopardy like never before – beset by disease and spurious insurance claims, and too readily felled by cash-strapped local authorities which only saw their potential cost rather than their contribution to climate, public health and even the wealth of a city. It was a Swedish healthcare specialist, Roger Ulrich, who discovered in 1984 that hospital patients appeared to recover more quickly from surgery in rooms with green views. Soon a growing body of scientific evidence demonstrated the health – and wealth – benefits of trees in cities.
In Toronto, Canadian researchers found that people living on tree-lined streets reported health benefits equivalent to being seven years younger or receiving a substantial salary rise. Other studies revealed benefits from everything from improved mental health to reduced asthma.
In recent years a further benefit of tree cover in urban areas has been revealed. With rising temperatures, a cover of foliage has been found to reduce temperatures in urban environments of concrete and glass.
The awareness of the benefits of street trees has certainly taken root in Hobart. Along with boosting tree plantings, the 90-page tree strategy also recommends assigning an economic value to street trees similar to other infrastructure.
The report accompanying the strategy acknowledges the wrong types of trees have been planted in some locations in the past, leading to road and path cracking, and trees struggling to thrive. New planting techniques in urban areas have reduced cracking and buckling through root containment systems.
The ambitious tree goal is part of a broader effort to improve the city’s liveability and resilience to climate change. The strategy emphasises the importance of trees in filtering air pollution, producing oxygen, providing habitat for animals, and mitigating climate change effects. It also recommends a mix of tree species to guard against disease and a specific ratio of tree families and individual species. The strategy leans heavily on community engagement and aims to guide the planting, protection, and management of trees across the municipality over coming years.
After my hike in the Peak district, I was soon back in London discovering tree-initiatives there.
A group called the Walking Tree Collective had set out a stall in the historic Dog and Bell pub in Deptford in the inner south-east of the city to promote the first of 12 interactive walks for children studying trees and urban ecology in general.
Nearby on Hilly Fields I was able to follow part of an eight-kilometre walk linking streams and parks in the Borough of Lewisham. In the same borough there is an active “Street Trees for Living” movement which plants trees under the guidance of the council.
It appears the tree campaign born in Sheffield has branches everywhere.