A lot of the twitter feeds, about street trees, that I’m seeing at the moment are extolling the benefits of planting only native trees. So, for the purposes of this blog, I would like to talk just a little bit about the native trees we have in Ireland and their suitability to being planting as street trees within our urban environment. The first thing to recognise is, what is it that we want from the trees we plant in urban environments. The benefits from trees are far and wide from reducing temperatures, offering shelter and shade to softening the built landscape and hard surfaces (Roberts et al, 2006). However, in order for trees to perform these tasks they must be in good health so planting the right tree in the right place is essential.
