Trees in our Cities — They saved my family during lockdown and now I want to give back

Arriving in early 2020 in Brussels, our growing family was excited to begin an adventure on the other side of the world from where we grew up in Australia. But soon after we arrived, our ability to explore our new home city became more and more limited. On the 18th of March, Belgium was locked down, meaning no more childcare or school for our kids and that we must stay in our apartment except for physical exercise and to buy groceries.

With a toddler and pre-schooler at home — how to pass the days without going crazy or destroying our furnished apartment? There was only one option — go outside. By bike and pram we spent each day criss-crossing the city looking for new parks and forests to explore.

Small trees leaning over precariously became ‘secret verandahs’ for our teddy bear picnics. The rabbit burrows under and around huge tree roots became mysterious underground worlds to explore and hide easter eggs. Dense bushes became the best hiding places for ‘hide and seek’. Fallen logs became balance beam challenges for growing children to conquer. Sticks were re-purposed into teepees. Acorns became the counters for games of bingo. All manner of leaves and flowers were collected for crafts.

In short, trees and parks saved our little family during lockdown. And it is clear that we weren’t the only ones. People are showing love for their local trees all over the world. In Melbourne, Australia, when the local council setup 70,000 email addresses for local trees, they were expecting residents to write when they noticed a tree needed to be pruned. But unexpectedly, they have also received thousands of love letters and people asking their trees existential questions.

In the UK, the Curio project created an app where people could explore the trees around them. The Greater London Authority provided the species and location of more than 700,000 street and park trees across London. Then, citizen scientists set about photographing and writing stories about these trees. A tool which has expanded to be used in schools and communities across the world.

At a global level, the OpenTrees.org project has mapped more than 15,000,000 urban trees in 20 countries. This worldwide inventory includes information about the types of trees being grown across the world, a treasure trove of information which is being used by scientists to study the diversity of tree species and much more.

Urban trees are the lifeblood of our city. Not only do they provide shade for picnics, play spaces for children and beautiful backgrounds for a walk in the park, but they are also vital for the health of our environment. Trees provide a home for biodiversity, clean the air, cool our neighbourhoods, prevent flooding and much, much more.

So trees are important, but how can we help protect them and grow our urban forests? In the US alone, 36 million trees are lost in cities each year. That’s where I hope to give back, as I work with WEO, a Luxembourgish start-up to utilise satellites to take our knowledge of urban trees to the next level. We have found that satellites can enable us to track the growth and even health of trees from space. For example, we can see where a tree might have been removed illegally, where a tree is growing too close to a railway line or where a tree is losing leaves and may need a checkup from an arborist.

By working with municipalities, this information can then be used to reduce the loss of trees in our cities, find which tree species grow best and target maintenance and watering to where its needed to save money and reduce envrionmental impacts. In this way, I hope I can use my skills as an environmental engineer to help ensure there are more trees to play in for my children as they grow.