#urban trees

[probablyasocialecologist]

The unpaved sidewalks are lined with native, food-bearing trees and shrubs fed by rainwater diverted from city streets. One single block has over 100 plant species, including native goji berries, desert ironwood with edamame-like seeds and chuparosa bushes with cucumber-flavored flowers.

This urban food forest – which began almost 30 years ago – provides food for residents and roughage for livestock, and the tree canopy also provides relief to residents in the third-fastest warming city in the nation. It has made Dunbar Spring a model for other areas grappling with increased heat, drought and food insecurity caused by the climate crisis.

“We’re creating a living pantry,” said Brad Lancaster, a resident and co-founder of the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Foresters organization, which planted the urban food forest.

[...]

“We can plant resilient native trees that are not dependent on imported water for irrigation,” said Lancaster, standing near a series of curb cuts that pull storm water off the street into sidewalk plantings. “Trees shade the street, reduce heat stress and provide food for our neighborhood.”

Before the pandemic, Dunbar Spring held annual community-wide milling events, in which pods harvested from the hundreds of mesquite trees in the neighborhood were ground into flour – giving them a year’s supply of flour, according to Lancaster.

The work in Dunbar Spring, along with Lancaster’s books and website, have inspired people worldwide to take up water harvesting to irrigate native food-bearing street trees. “In almost every neighborhood in Tucson, you can now find at least one property doing this,” he said.

#trees #cities #climate change #urban trees

[climatecalling]

“The city doesn’t like fruit trees,” Marisa Prefer, a self-described “street-tree steward,” said recently, looking up at a plumless plum tree in Brooklyn. Prefer is part of an anonymous collective known as the Guerrilla Grafters, which hopes to change the city’s canopy. Their mission: “We aim to turn city streets into food forests, and unravel capitalist civilization one branch at a time.” Flash back to the springtime, when Prefer, who is nonbinary and wore double-kneed work pants and mud-caked trail runners, brandished a pair of pruning shears at a plum tree. They said, “What if everyone had an apple tree in front of their house instead of having to go buy apples at the store?” Prefer snipped a low branch, then used black electrical tape to graft a gnarly twig of rosy-gage scionwood in its place. (Scionwood is a twig cutting used to propagate trees.) In a few years, the twig might grow into a branch drooping with plums. ... Prefer went on, “ ‘Guerrilla’ is not just a chic term we use. It’s supposed to be a little bit secret.” There haven’t been any arrests, they said, but, technically, grafting on city property is illegal.

#guerrilla gardening #tree grafting #urban trees #guerrilla grafters

[natureliz]

True Service tree in the November sun

#nature #nature in the city #london #urban wildlife #city wildlife #everyday nature #make time for nature #harringay #trees #true Service tree #autumn leaves #leaves #autumn #trees of london #urban trees #trees of tumblr #autumn sunset

[the-ballad-of-footage-dependecy]

#photography #my photo #photographers on tumblr #maple leaves #tree #urban trees

[blogarteplus]

Desde Blog Arte Plus:

Jardín H.C. Andersen en Dinamarca.

[ Acceder ]

#hans christian andersen #jardín #garden #dinamarca #denmark #odense #MASU Planning #Kengo Kuma #arquitectura #architecture #landscape #Paisajismo #árbol urbano #urban trees #ugly duckling

[worldcitiesday]

Turin; Italy.

The city of Turin is located in the region of Piedmont in the northwest of Italy and is home to 880,000 people. To overcome social, economic and environmental challenges, Turin initiated a transformation to become more sustainable and liveable. This is reflected in the current “2030 Action Plan for a Sustainable and Resilient Turin” which aligns with the city’s participation in the “Trees in Cities Challenge”. The pledge to plant 1,000 trees is implemented along with the development of a “Sustainable Urban Forest Management Plan” - one of the first plans of that kind in Italy – and the creation of a “Strategic Green Infrastructure Plan” to guide the management of, and investment in, green infrastructure. Together with a corporate sponsor, Turin planted 3,000 trees and overall 18,000 trees, considerably exceeding its pledge of 15,000.

#trees #towns #turin #italy #trees in cities #urban trees #tree planting pledges #urban forestry #green infrastructure #urban october

[jameshorrox]

#nature #environment #cities #urban trees #urban design #environmentalism #climate change #trees #urbanism #sustainability

[yourwaitress]

Enjoying every minute of these fall colors.

#kansascity #kcmo #urban trees #original photographers #photobyvaleriejcochran #photographers on tumblr #women street photographers

[sheri42]

Delicate Blossom

the beauty of cherry blossoms and the significance of trees #smallpoems #clmooc #poetry24 #cherryblossom #haiku #urbanforestry

Daily Note Every day, a photograph, a poem. Aren’t the cherry blossoms lovely? I’m still waiting for the blossoms of our neighborhood to open up, so I found this photo from April 3, 2021 of the cherry tree by the credit union on our daily walk [before Guthrie]. On the National Mall, the cherry blossoms will be blooming– and it almost always makes some national news story with a photo of their…

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#cherry blossoms #haiku #Poetry #poetry24 #Remember the Moments #Slice of Life #urban trees

[wordforests]

#environment #human ecology #infrastructure #trees #art #banksy #street art #BBC #U.K. #urban trees #urban ecology #city trees #cities #london

[intlforestday]

Plant the right trees in the right places.

When we plant the right trees in the right places, we support a cooler, greener and healthier future. Mitigating Climate Change and increasing biodiversity.

#Greencities #ClimateActionNow #sdg13 #sustainable forest management #urban trees #urban environment #urban-rural linkages #green cities initiatives

[probablyasocialecologist]

What if Tucson’s million new trees — and the rest of the country’s — didn’t just keep sidewalks cool? What if they helped feed people, too? That’s what Brandon Merchant hopes will happen on the shadeless south side of Tucson, a city where about one-fifth of the population lives more than a mile from a grocery store. He’s working on a project to plant velvet mesquite trees that thrive in the dry Sonoran Desert and have been used for centuries as a food source. The mesquite trees’ seed pods can be ground into a sweet, protein-rich flour used to make bread, cookies, and pancakes. Merchant, who works at the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, sees cultivating mesquite around the city and surrounding areas as an opportunity to ease both heat and hunger. The outcome could be a network of  “food forests,” community spaces where volunteers tend fruit trees and other edible plants for neighbors to forage. “Thinking about the root causes of hunger and the root causes of health issues, there are all these things that tie together: lack of green spaces, lack of biodiversity,” Merchant said. (The food bank received half a million dollars from the Biden administration through the Inflation Reduction Act.) Merchant’s initiative fits into a national trend of combining forestry — and Forest Service funding — with efforts to feed people. Volunteers, school teachers, and urban farmers in cities across the country are planting fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, and other edible plants in public spaces to create shade, provide access to green space, and supply neighbors with free and healthy food. These food forests, forest gardens, and edible parks have sprouted up at churches, schools, empty lots, and street corners in numerous cities, including Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, and Miami. “It’s definitely growing in popularity,” said Cara Rockwell, who researches agroforestry and sustainable food systems at Florida International University. “Food security is one of the huge benefits.” There are also numerous environmental benefits: Trees improve air quality, suck carbon from the atmosphere, and create habitat for wildlife, said Mikaela Schmitt-Harsh, an urban forestry expert at James Madison University in Virginia. “I think food forests are gaining popularity alongside other urban green space efforts, community gardens, green rooftops,” she added. “All of those efforts, I think, are moving us in a positive direction.”

#food forest #trees #urban trees #food security

[nudeartpluspoetry]

Las Vegas

#street photography #las vegas #urban trees #myphotos

[natureliz]

Autumn sun at Railway Fields, London

#nature #nature in the city #london #city wildlife #everyday nature #make time for nature #harringay #trees #autumn leaves #autumn sun #leaves #autumn #trees of tumblr #true service tree #railway fields #trees of london #urban trees

[sergeypatskevich]

instagram flickr

#urban trees #karelia #tree #branches

[blogarteplus]

Desde Blog Arte Plus: Oficina de agricultura urbana en Vietnam. 

[ Acceder ]

#VTN Architects #vietnam #arquitectura #Architecture #ho chi minh city #green walls #vertical garden #muro verde #jardín vertical #árbol urbano #naturaleza #urban trees #agricultura