Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Special offer: Receive 8 issues for just £9.99!
SUBSCRIBE
Opinion

How an urban forest is helping Edinburgh breathe

Urban forests from Trees for Cities are breathing new life into impoverished areas

Trees for Cities

Trees for Cities

Standing on top of the hill, wind blowing and cold lapping my face, it is exciting to think that this spot would soon be home to 7,000 new trees, if a little tricky to picture.

We’re in Craigmillar, Edinburgh, to plant the first shoots of a new woodland with our funding partner here, the People’s Postcode Lottery. We help unload the trees, some tiny and twig-like, others thorny whips and saplings, dodging the dug-out holes as the volunteers walk towards us: an eclectic mix: staff from People’s Postcode Lottery in their bright red hoodies, and a group of five women, residents and staff at The Thistle, local housing for people with long-term health conditions. Their grins stretch from ear to ear, gleaming against the pallid spring sky.

Trees are the lungs of the world, and we’re here to help Edinburgh breathe better!

It’s amazing how two groups of people who have never met can bond so quickly. While Ben, from Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust, gives an introduction on “how on earth to plant a tree”, the laughter turns into light teasing and soon everyone spreads out across the hill, clutching their chosen saplings.

Tree puns and one-liners abound, and especially from comedy duo Christopher and Heath who (admitting they’d come prepared) boldly proclaim that “trees are the lungs of the world, and we’re here to help Edinburgh breathe better!”

Then there is Helen, striking because of her smile that never stops, and the kaleidoscope of keyrings her wheelchair is almost buried under. She has everything from a decent proportion of the Smurf family to Pudsey and could tell a story about how she adopted each and every one of them.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

But why here? Edinburgh is a city of hills, so why plant thousands of trees on this one in Little France Park? In our 25-year history, Trees for Cities has planted more than 770,000 trees in deprived urban areas, as this is where access to green space is most lacking and communities stand to gain so much from the countless benefits of trees.

Craigmillar is in the bottom 10 per cent of deprived areas in Scotland (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, 2016) and was first built up in the late-1920s with the opening of breweries and mines. When these began to close in the Sixties and Seventies, unemployment rates soared. Lying around three miles outside Edinburgh’s bustling centre, its sparse landscape is quiet, still almost, jarring against a mental picture of what it would have been in its heyday.

This hill has the potential to transform an entire community

Fast forward to 2018, and employment opportunities are few and far between, with a solitary tower block and school visible from the hill, joined most recently by a hospital and new homes, built to offer affordable housing and a new heart for Craigmillar. 

Peter, one of the volunteers from People’s Postcode Lottery, grew up here and speaks of how tough it could be. But looking out on to the vista, he’s hopeful about the future of the area.

“When I think about the memories I have of Craigmillar, there wasn’t much money around and there were a lot of derelict houses,” Peter says. “Planting these trees today makes me think that this could be a totally different place to the one I remember from my childhood. Everything will be new, and perhaps it won’t be looked down upon any more.”

Peter’s on to something, and there’s reason to be optimistic for Craigmillar’s future. The woodland is easier to picture. This hill has the potential to transform the health and wellbeing of an entire community.

Trees for Cities have planted 773,832 trees so far across the UK and around the world and have created 30 edible playgrounds. Urban trees can cut heating and cooling requirements of nearby buildings, enrich biodiversity, reduce the risk of flooding, strengthen communities and, of course, improve air quality. For example, London’s trees remove 2.4 million tonnes of air pollution each year.

treesforcities.org

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Never miss an issue

Take advantage of our special New Year subscription offer. Subscribe from just £9.99 and never miss an issue.

Recommended for you

View all
How Clement Attlee's best intentions led to the problems we face today
John Bird

How Clement Attlee's best intentions led to the problems we face today

UK immigration policy is stuck in a race to the bottom – with human traffickers the only winners
Lucila Granada

UK immigration policy is stuck in a race to the bottom – with human traffickers the only winners

Why would billionaires end world hunger when they can buy the fountain of youth?
Paul McNamee

Why would billionaires end world hunger when they can buy the fountain of youth?

Sam Kerr's arrest highlights the white supremacy, racism and misogyny of British policing 
Amanda Porter

Sam Kerr's arrest highlights the white supremacy, racism and misogyny of British policing 

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know