Swedish model could help London's trees, city told

London should take lessons from Sweden on how to protect the capital's trees from droughts and diseases, an expert from Kew Gardens has told politicians.

Giving evidence to the London Assembly's environment committee, Kevin Martin said a lot of the species currently being planting in urban environments are not suited to city life.

Mr Martin, head of tree collections and arboriculture at Kew, said: "I've just come back from Malmö in Sweden and they are very far advanced of what we're doing now in London."

He suggested people are undergoing a "really big cultural shift" towards protecting trees.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Mr Martin pointed to the controversy surrounding the felling of an ancient oak tree in Enfield as evidence of increased public interest in trees, along with the public outcry about the destruction of the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland.

He said: "I do think we need to keep pushing on with that and don't let it go out of the public eye, because as soon as that news story stops, it will all be forgotten about again."

He told the London Assembly to "think really carefully now about getting the species selection right" as the capital's trees are suffering from droughts and diseases as the impacts of climate change are worsening.

He suggested planting trees with the plasticity to deal with drought stress, and said the Swedes are even making their own soil "so when they do get rain, they can hold the moisture for a lot longer".

He added: "They're using a mix of perlite and biochar and also soft, organic mulch, and they're really buying into it and increasing their planting pits.

"So there's lots of things we have to look at to get the establishment of trees in London."

According to the Greater London Authority, London is the one of the world's largest urban forests, containing an estimated 8.4 million trees in public and private spaces.

Mr Martin said that there was no getting away from the fact that London is "a big urban heat island" which typically records temperatures higher than in rural areas.

Assembly member Keith Prince said that prior to his election, Sir Sadiq Khan had promised he would plant two million trees in his first term alone - though this pledge did not end up appearing in his formal manifesto.

Abby Crisostomo, City Hall's head of green infrastructure, said Sir Sadiq remained committed to his goal of increasing London's tree canopy by 10%, having already funded the planting of more than 600,000 new trees since his election in 2016.

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