Meet the guardian of Dublin’s trees, who is making contingencies for climate change as he tends to ‘urban forest’
In the concrete jungle that is Dublin, some green spaces still flourish – and trees hold a place in many city-dwellers’ hearts.
However, they are a divisive subject for some, especially if they encroach on cycle lanes or obstruct development.
Ludovic Beaumont, a Frenchman who has been overseeing the capital’s trees for the last six years, has the unenviable task of walking the tightrope between these deeply held views and keeping Dublin’s “urban forest”, as he calls it, healthy and growing.
“It’s a bit of a funny term, because, in a way, it’s two terms that oppose each other,” he said. “But it’s the idea that you have to look at your city trees as a forest, as a global thing that you have to manage and understand.”
Of the 300,000 trees in the capital, a third come directly under his purview as the city council’s tree officer, specifically on-street trees and those in the council’s parks.
The remainder are in private gardens, industrial estates and Office of Public Works (OPW) sites, such as Phoenix Park and St Stephen’s Green.
Dublin has a canopy cover – the term given to how much space is taken up by trees – of around 10pc, according to a UCD study in 2017. This places the city near the middle of Europe’s rankings.
It would be easier for me to plant 20,000 trees and there we go, but five years later none of them are alive
While Mr Beaumont would like to see the number rise, it is not as simple as just planting trees en masse.
“I think it’s important that we improve it, but it has to be done the right way,” he said. “I’m always worried about giving targets, because it would be easier for me to plant 20,000 trees and there we go, but five years later none of them are alive.
“It’s very easy to plant trees, but it’s more difficult establishing them.”
It makes sense to plant sustainably, based on what the council can maintain and supervise properly, rather than overreaching initially and having many trees die a few years later.
“So it will be an incremental increase,” Mr Beaumont said. “But it’s a bigger project, in some ways. It’s an urban project that is the place of the tree in the city. How we’re using the city. How are we moving in the city? What space we are leaving for pedestrians, cyclists and trees compared to cars.”
Cars are the main competition for space when he is looking for a spot to plant.
“They take room, and there’s nothing we can do about that. And in the room that is left, you have to do everything else,” he said.
Dublin’s tree coverage is not spread evenly, with a much lower concentration of greenery in the centre.
While the Georgian and medieval core of the city has between 0pc and 5pc tree cover, some of the suburbs, such as Donnybrook, go up to 20pc.
Addressing this disparity is something Mr Beaumont is working on, but it is very difficult to introduce trees to old, narrow streets.
He cites Stoneybatter as a constrained area that has had success with its planting in recent years, as select parking spaces were taken over by greenery, in partnership with the community.
Mr Beaumont said it was a brilliant initiative, because the trees never interfere with underground services and they do not need much work to create the space.
“If you have a parking space, you dig it out, plant a tree and do some greening. This is a perfect solution, because it will not impact anything,” he said.
Another method for greening more difficult areas for growth is by introducing planters, but this was typically a last resort because of the extra maintenance and watering required.
Dublin has more than 300 recorded tree species. Mr Beaumont is focused on creating even more variety to improve the urban forest’s overall strength.
Bushy Park in Terenure Dublin, is home to a massive redwood
“One of our main targets when we manage the city is to have an urban forest that is going to be resilient to climate change and disease. How we do that is basically by having a lot of different species of trees,” he said.
He follows what is called the 10/20/30 rule when it comes to tree planting.
“What this says is that you cannot have more than 10pc of one species, and that’s the most important one. You cannot have more than 20pc of a genus, or 30pc of the family of trees,” he said.
“Basically, it makes sure that when you have a disease coming in, you’re going to have resistance because not everything is going to be impacted.”
Variety in age around the city is also a key factor in resilience – younger trees should be planted well ahead of older trees dying.
Between pollution, lack of water, space constraints and roots being interfered with, city streets were perhaps the worst environment for trees, Mr Beaumont said, but there are some species that have managed to thrive.
What we have been doing is basically going away from all these kinds of forest trees towards smaller trees
“One of the best street trees – and that’s why it has been used for more than 100 years – is the plane. It is a fantastic tree,” he added.
Recognisable to many Dubliners as the trees lining boulevards like North Circular Road and Griffith Avenue, planes have made a significant mark on Dublin. Many streets are also the better for the presence of sizeable lime trees.
However, not all sites suit such large species, and in this vein the council has been trying Amelanchier and Persian ironwood trees, among others, at various sites across the city in recent years.
“What we have been doing is basically going away from all these kinds of forest trees towards smaller trees and trying to introduce bigger trees into open spaces in parks,” Mr Beaumont said.
Climate change is an increasingly important factor when deciding on the right trees for the capital. With this in mind, native trees are an increasingly rare choice.
“To have a resilient urban forest, I cannot really rely on 10 or 12 native trees. I understand the biodiversity aspect of it, but nature is changing. We are not in a museum,” Mr Beaumont said.
“We know everything is moving north, and the trees are moving north very rapidly because it’s getting too warm.”
He said forests across Europe were struggling, with more intense weather and warmer, wetter periods making survival tough for trees.
Many beech forests in northern France and Germany were already on their way out, soon to be ‘souvenirs’.
Trees, for some reason, are a very emotional matter. Everybody has an opinion against or for them
The facts cannot be ignored when choosing the kind of trees that will define the streets of Dublin for generations to come.
Mr Beaumont said he reckoned his favourite tree in the city is a particularly massive redwood, which is over 200 years old, in Bushy Park. He also admires the substantial plane trees in Merrion Square.
As for the future, he wants to create a guide to Dublin’s veteran and interesting trees for residents and tourists to be able to explore the leafy attractions of the city.
He is also optimistic about the positive changes he has seen in Irish attitudes in recent years.
“Trees, for some reason, are a very emotional matter,” he said. “And everybody has an opinion against or for them. But if it wasn’t changing, I would not have this job and there would be no tree officers in Ireland.
“And I just got a new assistant recently, so we’re getting bigger.”