The inquiry into the street tree conflict in Sheffield is out, & as epic as the subject deserves. The account of the saga is fair & comprehensive - vindicating the tree protectors - but this para from the overview shows the seed from which it all grew.
tinyurl.com/Sheffinquiry
tinyurl.com/Sheffinquiry
To those tuned into the #trees around us, it is unthinkable to entertain the idea that trees lose value with age and that a fragile sapling replacing a veteran #streettree is equivalent to replacing a rusted lamppost with a shiny new one.
Much has happened in the last decade to make this mistake feel impossible to repeat anywhere in the UK. I’d love to think that the #TreeCharter has been a part of the change, though I feel the actions & words of the protestors in #Sheffield themselves are the biggest influence.
Reading the report took me right back to those hectic, fraught times. The stakes were high, the stress real, but there was also an exhilarating sense of shared passion & moral certainty, & some wonderful moments of creativity expression & camaraderie.
Just as the Sheffield protests themselves were an incredible demonstration of the need for a #TreeCharter, and inspiration for its content, this report can now sit alongside it as a real-world illustration of the implications of underestimating the importance of trees to people.
Above all I hope the brave and inspiring people at the heart of the protests take some catharsis and closure from this report. They saved so many healthy trees on their streets, but even more importantly they drew a line in the sand for the trees in all of our lives. 🌳🏡💚
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