Succession Tree Planting

About this pattern

As trees grow to maturity, they change the microclimate around them. Deciduous trees for instance will form a shady canopy during summer and also provide shelter from hot winds, and then let the sun through in winter (ABC 2009). Trees take time to mature into a size that can afford shade and coolth, however, and they need to be protected to mature. Furthermore, mature trees can die back or die altogether, thus other trees need to be on their way towards maturity to take their place. It is therefore imperative that senescent trees, that is, trees of advanced old age or trees in decline, that are more susceptible to disease, insect infestation and decay, are responsibly managed in urban streets and parks and that succession tree planting is planned for (City of Ryde 2016, pp. 24-26). This particularly requires the development of expertise relating to:

• Monitoring tree senescence patterns.
• Staggering plantings over time.
• Communicating clearly to park users the plans for staggered plantings, and the transformative processes currently taking place.

Pattern Conditions

Enablers

• Some Local Government Authorities are coming to realise that unplanned work to remove and replace individual trees on an ad-hoc basis is overly expensive and that a better solution is to develop a Tree Master Plan for parks and precincts, together with a tree inventory and community consultation programme (with calls for volunteering).

Constraints

• Long term plans are difficult to envision, and changes can happen too slowly to be discerned sufficiently to inspire respect. Original plans might be lost over time if there are not activities that ensure intergenerational communication.
• Trees may not grow as planned for. Extreme weather events can disrupt long-term landscape designs.

Commoning Concerns

Tree planting as an activity among commoners who create, sustain and are sustained by the commons

Ownership: Local Government Authority.

Access: All public; birdlife.

Use: Better planning for tree replacement;

Benefit: Maintaining coolth in microclimates; amenity of public space;

Care: Local Government Authority; contracted arboriculturists; community volunteers. 

Usually experts design and maintain landscapes. Users of the cooling services of park landscapes can be invited into the process of planning and assisting the realisation of landscape designs over time. Planting for succession can create intergenerational sense of ownership over a commons.

Note: We can also improve passive maintenance of vegetation through environmental manipulation and an understanding of ecological succession. In this way, non-human users are also enrolled into a commoning ecosystem.