Cambridge City Council Launch a New Pilot Project to Protect & Grow the City’s Tree Population

By Joshua Dowding, Ciéra Cree & Gabs Bennington

On the 13^th March, The Ruskin Journal was invited to the Guildhall, Market Square, to conduct an interview with Dr. Matthew Ling of Cambridge City Council regarding the launch of the Cambridge Canopy Project – a local initiative to protect and grow the city’s existing tree canopy cover. As Project Leader, Dr. Ling had been eager to share some of the details of the project with us, and we have transcribed some of the interview that followed for the convenience of our readers.

The Cambridge Canopy Project

This project is part of a larger ‘umbrella’ initiative called Nature-Smart Cities which includes other institutions such as Imperial College London and Southend-On-Sea Borough Council. The initiative will fund a number of pilot studies to ‘deploy green infrastructure solutions in an effort to help fight climate change’ – the Cambridge Canopy Project will be one such pilot. The initiative operates in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, as well as England, with another pilot project based in Southend-on-Sea, in addition to Cambridge.

The Council estimates that there are more than 300,000 trees, whether they’re on public or private land, throughout Cambridge, which equates to about 17% tree canopy cover by land area – whereas the average cover for cities in the UK sits at around 8%. Despite being ‘quite well-treed already’, the aim of this project is to uplift that coverage to 19% by 2050. To achieve this uplift, the Council told us that a total of 16,000 new trees will need to be planted throughout the city. Of these, 2,000 will be planted on Council-owned land and 1,500 will be given away through existing schemes, which leaves 12,500 trees that the Council want to ‘encourage the public’ to plant on their own private land.

‘There’s a real benefit to having areas of shade to help reduce the heat island effect in cities. For instance, having tree-lined streets with permanently shaded pavement, it could be 20 degrees cooler than it would be if it were not shaded […] That’s without thinking of [the] trees themselves physically and how they reduce air temperature just through transpiration.’ – Dr. Ling

The trees that the Council intend to plant will be more robust than those that would be planted in more rural areas, we were told. Standing at around 2 to 3 metres tall (on average) and measuring at around 6 to 8cm in diameter, Dr. Ling explained that these young trees would need to be able to withstand a life that could see them being used as make-shift bike stands, goalposts, sun shelters, targets for vandalism, and other risks to the tree’s well-being.

However, there will be limitations to where the Council can plant their 2,000 trees. Cambridge has a lot of private land that ‘can’t be touched’ by the Council itself, and even in the ‘public realm’, there have been a significant number of areas labelled as ‘unplantable’ such as near roads, pavements, brooks and rivers. Although some locations have been identified as potential candidates, Dr. Ling explained that ‘this will include some planting in the city’s parks and green open spaces’. But, as clarified, the project will focus on planting in areas that will not require lengthy public consultations or complex decisions.

‘We have [the] funding to do [this]. With purchasing a tree, the manpower to plant it, some materials like tree stakes and [tree] ties, and hydration bags, it’s coming out at around £150 per tree […] but we obviously can’t plant 100,000 [trees] just like that’ – Dr. Ling

After the 2,000 trees have been planted, the focus will then shift on to the maintenance of those trees, helping them grow, and protecting the existing tree canopy cover. However, looking beyond the Nature-Smart Cities initiative, Dr. Ling told us that the Cambridge Canopy Project will have ‘its own ambitions’ going forward; he hopes that the project will later become its ‘own entity’ and evolve beyond the lifetime of the initiative itself. Despite being part of a wider European initiative, Dr. Ling stated that the aim of the project will be to ‘deliver things on the ground that influence, impact, and benefit the city itself’, in-keeping with the remit of the City Council.

 ‘At the moment, this is so on-trend. It feels like the right moment for this project.’ – Dr. Ling

Expanding Existing Schemes

For twenty-five years, Cambridge City Council has been running a scheme called ‘Free Trees for Babies’ which gives residents having a child the opportunity to apply online and take home a tree to plant in their own gardens. Over the course of that period, ‘thousands’ of trees have been given out to Cambridge residents’, which, coupled with the ongoing planting in the public realm, has helped the Council grow the city’s urban forest at a modest rate over-time.

With an estimated 44,000 private gardens throughout the city, Dr. Ling notes that if the residents of the city could each plant one tree in their gardens, it would result in more than a ‘10% increase in the overall tree population, straight off’. The Journal noted that the Council had gathered this information with the help of an aerial photographic survey of the city.

‘Everyone’s trees are part of the whole process’ – Dr. Ling

With the introduction of the Cambridge Canopy Project, the Council hopes to up the number of trees they can offer through this existing scheme, with an aim to give away as many as ‘500 trees per-year, over a three-year period’ – totalling 1,500 trees. That’s on top of the 2,000 trees that the Council aims to plant themselves throughout the project by 2022.

The Impact of COVID-19

As is the case for everyone presently, Cambridge City Council has had to re-evaluate how it will approach some aspects of the project going forward, since a significant part of the project would have involved a degree of public outreach and awareness-raising. Many of these processes are now on hold for the time being. Nonetheless, interested members of the public can still get involved with the project in a number of different ways: the Council are currently running a survey to ‘gather insights into residents’ perceptions of trees’, the Council are also asking for help to map the locations of trees on privately-owned land, ‘especially Ash trees’, and they would encourage all residents to help water their newly planted trees. These activities can be carried out during your daily exercise time out of the house whilst also observing social distancing guidance, of course.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has also forced the Council to postpone its i-Tree Eco study which would have involved students from the university helping to survey their local areas. However, as Dr. Ling explained to the Journal, in collaboration with Treeconomics Ltd, Forest Research, and Anglia Ruskin University, the Council will now employ a ‘novel approach’ to ‘engage untrained citizens’ from more than 130 households across the city to conduct the field surveys from the safety of their own homes. The Journal has been told that both university students and staff can still get involved in some aspects of this, and there will also be future opportunities to contribute to the project as well. Victoria Tait of the Global Sustainability Institute is coordinating this effort, so please contact her to express your interest in this work.

‘It’ll be a huge challenge, but it’s where we’re hoping to go.’ – Dr. Ling

Final Thoughts

It was a privilege to be able to interview a member of the City Council regarding this interesting environmental project. We hope that, despite the ongoing pandemic, the project will continue to move forward and see success in the long-term. We would like to thank Dr. Matthew Ling for his time – and his patience! – and we look forward to covering the Cambridge Canopy Project again in the near future.

Images: Devin Kleu on Unsplash

Students, Alumni & Staff Pen Open Letter to University Governors

By Joshua Dowding

Since August, 155 students, staff members, and university alumni have signed an open letter addressed to the Governors of the university, citing concern with the Chair of Governors decision to become a Trustee to The Global Warming Policy Foundation, known as the GWPF. Dr Jerome Booth’s decision to associate himself with the Foundation in this manner has sparked condemnation from research fellows, PhD researchers and lecturers, a significant number of whom have signed the open letter.

In July, the climate science publication DeSmog UK published an article regarding the recent appearance of Dr Booth’s name on the list of trustees, on the GWPF website. DeSmog reported that Dr Booth’s decision was taken because ‘he was interested in energy policy and believes [that] greater scrutiny of climate policies is needed’. He goes on to say that ‘the GWPF has no collective position on climate science, but encourages open and balanced discussion’. DeSmog also reported that Dr Booth had made an undisclosed number of donations to the GWPF, though no details of these gifts were chronicled.

However, as DeSmog also pointed out, Dr Booth’s asset management company – New Sparta, of which he is currently Chairman – does invest in ‘renewable energy strategies’. Highlighting it as one of the company’s current investment themes.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation describes itself as an ‘all-party and non-party think tank and registered educational charity’, and that while they’re ‘open-minded on the contested science of global warming’, the Foundation is ‘deeply concerned about the costs and other implications of the policies currently being advocated’. The Foundation’s website stresses that they are ‘in no sense anti-environmental’, and that their aim is to ‘provide the most robust and reliable economic analysis and advice’.

While the foundation is not a lobby group, it’s ‘wholly-owned subsidiary’ – The Global Warming Policy Forum – states on its website that it has a growing ‘influence’ among ‘both UK and international policy makers’. The Forum describes itself as a ‘think tank which conducts campaigns and activities which do not fall squarely within the [foundation’s] remit as an educational charity’.

The Ruskin Journal is keen to stress that Dr Booth has no documented affiliation with this wholly-owned subsidiary, though the fact that it is ‘wholly-owned’ is public knowledge and is therefore noteworthy in it’s own right.

The open letter, set to be published in December, suggests that Dr Booth should resign as Trustee of the foundation, believing his involvement with the GWPF to be a ‘direct contradiction’ to the university’s commitment to sustainability. The letter also asks the remaining Governors to be ‘active advocates for sustainability’, stating that the university is ‘recognized for it’s world-leading contributing to sustainability through numerous awards’. The letter also recognizes the ‘many valuable ways’ in which Dr Booth – as Chair of Governors – has contributed to the university throughout his tenure.

Sarah Royston – the letter’s author and inaugural signatory – provided this statement to The Ruskin Journal: ‘As a sustainability researcher, I’m proud of ARU’s strong reputation as a green University, and our pioneering research and teaching on environmental issues. So I was really shocked when a colleague at another university told me that ARU’s chairman was publicly supporting this anti-science lobby group. I hope that Jerome Booth will listen to the staff and students, and stop all involvement with the GWPF’ – Sarah is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the university.

Sources

1. https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/07/05/anglia-ruskin-university-chairman-and-tory-donor-jerome-booth-becomes-trustee-climate-science-denial-group
2. https://newspartaam.com/investment-themes/renewable-energy-strategies/
3. https://www.thegwpf.org/who-we-are/
4. https://www.thegwpf.com/who-we-are/

My Cambridge Shots

By Tawanda Masvikeni

To say I have always been in awe of Cambridge would be an understatement. The city is gorgeous. I particularly admire the way it merges the old and new; an inspiring conglomeration of the antique and the modern. Many people from the UK, Europe, The United States and other developed countries do not seem to share that sense of wonder, which I find perfectly reasonable.

When one has been used to something, desensitisation is almost inevitable. In my case, it took a tragically short time for me to go from looking at buildings that once filled me with a sense of appreciation to hardly noticing them. It is a sad feeling. It is akin to loss yet still having whatever feels lost. When a once ubiquitous feeling starts to slowly fade, one has few ways of remedying it. An option is to accept that nothing, whatever the extent of its grandeur, can be eternally inspiring to behold. I tried that. It was my hope that with the passage of time I would accept it as being an inextricable aspect of the human condition that we lose admiration. That proved to be something I could not simply stoically stomach. There must be a way, I thought to myself, to rediscover the beauty Cambridge always availed to me.

Without expending too many words on what followed, that is the basic backstory of how I set out to love Cambridge again. This time around, I fell in love with it through photography. Having become a picture junkie of sorts in the past week, I feel the city invite me to play with it each time I am out. Photography has rekindled our love. Here are few pictures that evidence our brewing romance.

I am particularly endeared to this picture because of how calm the water appears. There is a serenity to the whole scene that to me, is a distinct feature of Cambridge.

This picture shares many of the qualities of the one that precedes it. What sets it apart, however, is the way it exposes a different side to the city. The building to the right of the bridge, introduces the business element of the city. That is the Jobs Centre Plus building, where I went to get my national insurance number to enable me to work; I cannot help but attach money to it.

There is something ominous about this picture – like a parting of the clouds for a Messianic return as the world darkens.

This still is a playful one. The green in the park is well-exposed. The shadows hint at a bit of sunlight, which excitingly signals the approaching of summer – my first in the UK.

Easily my favourite picture, it captures this part of the university in a way that forces me to think about it more it more intimately.

Finally, this image of Compass House, dark and dreary, yet somehow hopeful.

Reigniting my passion for Cambridge has been trying; I at times forget to take in the city and focus on the perfect picture. More and more, I am finding out that it is about letting this corner of the world have its way with me – and giving in to the whims of Cambridge and whatever it wishes to show me next.

The Orchard Project

By Izzy Woodcock (Committee member of the Sustainability Society)

ARU’S Sustainability Society Becomes a Change Agent

The community of Cambridge has come together as part of an exciting new collaboration to create the first orchard at North Cambridge Academy.

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The initiative was set up by ARU’s Sustainability society with the aim of enhancing the connections between Anglia Ruskin students and the local community, as well as enabling sustainability at a local scale in Cambridge. The project is being made possible by a grant from Change Agents UK, an organisation that supports university students with a passion for making a difference to their local environment and community. The onsite orchard will consist of 9 fruit trees, chosen and planted by Year 7 pupils at North Cambridge Academy, and nurtured by the school. The project is a true community endeavour, with students receiving a 25% discount on the cost of the fruit trees from local garden centre, Scotsdale, and a donation of 12 posts (required for stabling the trees) from Cambridge’s Midsummer Common Community orchard. The planting will take place during the months of February and March, as this is the optimum time for tree planting.

“I know that lots of different activities happen at the school every day, and that it is a central point for many local communities” commented Emilia Idziak, Vice President of Anglia Ruskin’s Sustainability society.

“The orchard will be a great way to promote sustainability, natural healthy snacks, wildlife, biodiversity, gardening skills, and the benefits that gardening can have for mental health to families that live locally.”

From the outside, Cambridge might appear as a thriving city, but poverty is a huge problem here. With many families without a garden and living in flats, the orchard will provide a green space to connect young people with the environment, and will help to enrich the lives of students at the school.

The simple act of planting several trees in an otherwise bare plot of land can have years of benefits, providing continuous education for generations of students who pass through the school. The trees will produce an abundance of seasonal fruit, as well as helping to facilitate young people’s learning about nature in their community. One tree can be home to a huge array of living organisms and can support its own mini-ecosystem. It is hoped that the orchard will become a key feature of the school, with students learning about sustainability as they take care of the trees.

In a world where green spaces seem to be decreasing at a rapid rate, the addition of one small orchard might seem overshadowed by other negative reports on the state of the environment. Yet, for the Sustainability society, the best way to change the world is to start by setting the example in your own community; by supporting a generation of young people to care for nature, they are certainly living up to this aim and proving themselves to be inspiring change agents in the process.