The presence of long, ordered rows of trees is a common sight along roads and streets in France. Growing up, I witnessed the changing of seasons, and surely enough, during the winter months, the lime and plane trees would be pruned to an inch of their lives, making them look like a creature from the depths of Tim Burton’s imagination.
Culturally, the aesthetic of pollarding is important to French – but also, more widely – European culture. It dates to the 19th century when the human urge to control nature prevailed, resulting in trees being stripped back to stunt their growth and to be ‘tamed’ in the interest of modern society.
The look of these trees is undeniably unique, from the history of their purpose – to shade Napoleon and his troops from the sun – to the heritage and identity these trees cultivated, a culture that routinely impressed family and friends who visited us in France, my grandma being one of them, who talks about their striking aesthetic to this day.
However, this cultural identity seems to be shifting. Albeit unusual for the French to abandon tradition, certain cities such as Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg and Geneva, located on the French-Switzerland border, are taking a more modern approach. The driving factor? Climate change, of course.
Due to higher temperatures during the summer months, which can be excruciating, municipalities have decided to refrain from pruning to encourage foliage cover to produce more shade in urban heat islands where roads, buildings, and other infrastructures absorb and re-emit heat. Geneva’s goal is to increase foliage cover by 9% by 2030. The climate crisis is forcing Europe to change its habits in the interest of wellbeing, highlighting those well-loved traditions are outdated in our society. This move will also promote greater biodiversity in urban areas, as well as cleaner air due to an increase in photosynthesis thanks to the additional foliage surface that these trees will produce. Additionally, these trees will increase humidity which will also play its role in transcending heat islands.
Of course, this transition won’t be straightforward. After continuous and routine pollarding, it will take almost a decade for these trees to transition properly. This transition will also have to be carefully monitored to ensure the health of the tree. So far, pruning teams have given over 350 trees in Geneva the green light for their conversion. Their transition will have to be carefully monitored by specialists to ensure that the tree is gaining adequate resistance to the wind by choosing scaffold branches to solidify its structure.
Despite being an ongoing project, which will take time and resources, it is refreshing to know that municipalities in France, and in Europe, are promoting biodiversity and climate to start to dissipate urban heat islands.
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Having just driven the N138 up from the Loire, they are long admired, distinguishing feature of many roads & town squares in France.
While accepting (?) the need for change I do hope France does not lose that which makes it special 👍
The French architecture and choice of materials can also do (and has done) much to reduce heat soak & heat radiation etc in towns.
I completely agree, there is something quintessentially French about it, but I do think it's a good idea to utilise already mature trees to cut down the temperatures in cities specifically. I think that's mainly the aim, so I doubt it'll be done in places where it's not as vital like roads in country villages etc. which will hopefully still hold on to their tradition.
And yes, that's true, but the trouble is the external factors that are forcing them to come up with ideas to help even more, which is a global issue, unfortunately.