Insight
Urban Trees Grow Faster
Despite (or maybe because of) all the stresses of the built environment, city trees are starting to grow faster than their rural siblings — by up to 20% potentially.
Until recently it was always thought to be the other way round; with rural growth quicker in the more suitable and harmonious surroundings.
Natura Nostra Forest - Southbank in London after the planting
3 months after the planting at Natura Nostra Forest - Southbank
But as our urban temperatures increase with the trapped heat island effect, nature as alway seems to adapt with trees and forests reacting to their immediate surroundings and creating beneficial effects.
This happens in several ways:
Trees and ideally dense pockets of forest are still by far the best way to cool the urban environment and counteract the heat island effects we are seeing.
Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)
Crab apple (Malus sylvestris)
