The Institute of Chartered Foresters President, Sharon Durdant-Hollamby FICFor, chaired the Landscape Institute’s recent webinar on urban reforestation as an effective tool against climate change.
Sharon commented,
“I was so pleased to see over 330 delegates attend this important topic of how planting trees in urban areas is proven to locally mitigate climate change. Howard Gray, the PR and Specification Consultant from GreenBlue Urban, gave a practical, solution-based presentation. Delegates asked great questions examining practicalities and big picture issues. One common thread was our collective concern that many highway authorities are reluctant to plant trees near adopted highways, despite their being technical issues to prevent roots causing problems in the future. There is work to be done on this.
“I was grateful to the Landscape Institute to be invited to chair, and this demonstrates increasing collaboration at Institute and practitioner level between allied professions. This is needed more than ever.”
The session that demonstrated it is possible to insert green infrastructure into the most constrained urban environments, covering urban tree planting, sustainable drainage systems and green wall planting specifically designed to not only help adapt to climate change but to create safer, cleaner, and healthier towns and cities for future generations.
Species choice, best practice planting methods and incorporation of sustainable drainage systems were shown to offer new possibilities to enhance towns and cities, making them resilient, future-proofed, and more pleasant place to live and work. Urban biodiversity was also covered – a matter of concern to many local authorities with a desire to rewild our towns with flora and fauna that may have flourished in the past, but has been reduced over time by the removal of natural habitats.
