So that’s where my money went. A few months ago I was driving into Glasgow to pick up the godson and strayed into the dreaded LEZ. Sure enough, a few days later I was told that my Toyota Yaris had been spotted in the forbidden zone (arrest the Toyota Yaris!) and I would have to pay a fine. I’ve also now learned where the money from the fine has gone, as well as the money from other people’s fines too, and it might be good if we talked about whether it’s money well spent.
I can tell you now that the money was spent on trees, specifically 28 trees that have been placed in planters around the city. There’s one in the Trongate and there’s one outside the Gallery of Modern Art and other places, and the trees are a mix of cherry blossom, birch and rowan, to ward off the witches. Councillor Angus Millar, convenor for city centre recovery (how do you think it’s going Mr Millar?) said reinvesting the LEZ money into trees would improve the look and feel of the city centre and secure a positive legacy from the council’s actions to reduce air pollution. “They represent our commitment to a greener, healthier and more sustainable Glasgow,” he said.
Fair enough I guess, although I have a few questions. Firstly, why only 28 trees? More please. Secondly, why put the trees in planters, which make them more prone to disease and death and restrict their growth? Why not plant them in the ground instead? And thirdly, why not commit all of the money from LEZ into environmental projects? Some £732,000 from the fines has been spent on community projects but the LEZ raised more than £1m in the first 10 months alone which means some of the money, to which I’ve contributed a bob or two, is going elsewhere. Where exactly?
The Glasgow trees also raise one or two bigger questions, I think, about the role trees are, or aren’t, playing in urban regeneration and environmental policy more generally. An impression has grown up that we can offset our carbon emissions by planting lots of trees (including putting 28 trees in planters) but as The Herald reported the other day, a new report in Nature Geoscience suggests tree-planting can only remove a small amount of the carbon that humans put into the air. In other words, we are too dirty for our trees to fix.
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Glasgow City Council’s policy on trees is also a bit confused. As I reported a few weeks ago, some old trees such as the 50-year-old hornbeam on the corner of Argyle Street and Finnieston Street are being cut down to make way for development (usually flats) because the council in Glasgow – unlike councils in other cities such as Bristol – does not prioritise the protection of mature trees in its planning. Old trees are a pain in the butt for developers who want to get their buildings up fast and cheap and the council in Glasgow has generally been letting them get away with it.
This is despite the fact that we know how much Glaswegians care about their trees. There was a campaign to save the Finnieston hornbeam, a campaign that was ignored sadly. You may also be familiar with the tree a little bit further bit up the road: the famous Argyle Street ash. It’s been nominated this year for The Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year competition and may go forward to the European Tree of the Year where worldwide tree fame surely awaits.
But if I may, I’d like to nominate another of Glasgow’s wonderful urban trees: the Paisley Road West sycamore, just across from Harvie Street (that’s the tree in the picture above). It’s one of a number of sycamores dotted along that rowdy and rambunctious road and every one of them is a joy, a reason to stop, the street’s green and glorious punctuation. And even though most of the time, like everyone else, I take them for granted, every now and again I see them like they’re new and I love them officially because I’m told they reduce the “Urban Heat Island Effect” (i.e. they cool the city down) but really I love them because they make me feel good.
So yes: the trees in Glasgow matter and it’s good the council has adopted a strategy that aims to increase their number over the next ten years and it’s good that it has already made a start, planting some 20,000 in Castlemilk, Tollcross and other places, and it’s good that they put 28 trees in planters at various points around the city (it would have been better if they’d put them in the ground but heh ho). But also I’m tempted to say that the problem with Glasgow’s tree plan is that they are not the trees that really matter.
The trees that really matter are the ones that aren’t there, by which I mean the woodland that could and should cover large parts of Scotland but doesn’t. It’s undoubtedly a good idea that we plant more trees in Glasgow and other cities, but what we’re not doing properly is the countryside. There are some excellent rewilding projects out there, including the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust’s plans for Dalnacardoch in the Cairngorms, of which I’m a supporter when I’m not having to pay LEZ fines. But most of Scotland’s countryside was damaged and denuded by industry and Empire and war and is still being damaged and denuded by what they call sport (by which they mean shooting birds, legally and illegally) and by sheep of course. And deer. As far as you can see.
I remember the moment I really understood it for the first time. I was up in Alladale, about an hour’s drive north of Inverness, visiting Paul Lister, the man who wants to reintroduce wolves in Scotland, and he pointed to the hills and glens and asked me what I thought of it all. I think I used some cheesy words like "beautiful" or "iconic" but the words he used were "messed up" because the hills and glens we think are beautiful have actually been stripped bare. "This should all be big forest," said Mr Lister indicating the landscape in front of us and suddenly, I could see it, and the whole of Scotland really, in a different way. He’s right. It should be forest. But it’s not. Where are all the trees? And when can we fix it?
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