319. Edinburgh's' Tree Travesty

Like many concerned people who have been banging on about climate and environmental devastation for decades, the upsurge of action by young folk, spear-headed by the inspiring Greta Thunburg, has raised my hopes.

That is, until you look at pictures like this one

This is just one of a pathetic handful of saplings planted after the stretch of The Water of Leith at the International Murrayfield BT sports stadium underwent extensive ‘flood management’ required because of years of poor/no management. The entire stretch was denuded of established trees and shrubs. There are wild flowers maturing now but flowers are not trees. In the wake of local protest at the wholesale wipe out of the trees, a handful of small specimens were sparsely planted at wide intervals. Some were vandalised. Some died. Some are malformed because the original supports have never been revisited or attended to.

Generally the pathways are less safe since being tarmacked (I can attest to this having been knocked over by a speeding cyclist) and many choose to walk down by the river along an area that used to support many nesting birds but which does not now as the fence was removed and the dogs chase the birds. When it’s hot like it was over the weekend, the stench of warm dog shit overrides everything else.

Here in Edinburgh, local and national government make as much noise about climate concern as anyone. A couple of years ago, after touring the peice around Edinburgh schools, I was invited to the Scottish Parliament for Environment Week to read extracts from my environmental poetry story Casey & the Surfmen – which charts the progress of a solitary child who eventually spearheads a mass movement to defeat those destroying the land. Spoiler alert – they are successful Casey & the Surfmen audio . But just months after I performed Casey, I had another piece of writing to do. A letter of mine was published in the papers concerning Edinburgh council’s vandalising act of cutting down 50 trees directly in front of Waverly Station to make way for the annual Christmas tourist tat Trees v Tourist Tat Included in that letter was a reference for Edinburgh University which cut down mature trees at Potterrow to create a blank, grey, treeless wasteland. More trees were cut down in front of the church where the new shopping centre surrounding John Lewis is being erected. Yes – another huge shopping mal – just like in the Casey story

Many schools – like the ones local to me – are built by roads regularly clogged with stationary traffic during the school run. And I’ve had run-ins with parents churning up verges and damaging vegetation with their huge cars because their little darlings must not be made to walk more than 3 inches to the school entrance. Those same parents, I always assume, like their children to be able to breathe oxygen.

Equally there seems an epidemic of people cutting down mature trees in their gardens, ditto hedges which are a haven for wildlife in suburban areas – and replacing them with the dead wood of fences. When those fences eventually rot they have to be replaced by cutting down more trees to replace the wood. And let’s not even get started on those covering over patches of ground with plastic grass because no sane person can get their head around that one.

There is much talk of saving the environment but little evidence of joined up thinking.

I mention Edinburgh only because I live here and I love living here but this makes me sad especially as I know it is echoed across the UK.