New street tree planting along both sides of Calvert Street Marrickville

I received the following today –

“Just letting you know that Calvert street has now had about twenty new street trees planted in the last few weeks (following on from the removal of the large chinese hackberry in August 2011 – council’s vote to remove that tree was conditional upon planting new native street trees). So far they appear to be going well, although there has been one instance of vandalism with a couple of branches being snapped off one of the trees near Gladstone Street. It’s good to see that Council followed through on the promise to plant more trees on Cavert Street.” ~ Kimberley

For some history I last wrote about the trees of Calvert Street here – http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/update-on-calvert-street-tree-planting/

So I went to have a look & Calvert Street looks really great.  Marrickville Council has planted 23 new street trees on both sides of the street & along its full length.  Most of the tree planting involved removing concrete, which is always a good thing.  All of the trees were planted in a hole covered in a tan-coloured pebble mix & level with the surrounding footpath.  This will prevent the tree holes becoming litter traps & is an attractive way to plant street trees in my opinion.

I felt so happy looking at all the new trees because you can easily see how leafy & green this street will be in a few years – that is if the tree vandal of the area leaves them alone.  Fingers crossed.  23 new trees is really obvious that a major transformation of the street is intended, so I hope this will send a strong message to the tree vandal.

Calvert Street is a busy thoroughfare from Victoria Road to the shops at Illawarra Road, so more trees will benefit a lot of people as well as create a favourable impression for people driving through Marrickville.

The trees will make the street healthier for the local residents as they help improve the air quality by removing air pollution & particulate matter from the traffic.  The trees will also make this a cooler streetscape.  With so much concrete Calvert Street was always a hot place.  Many residents here sit on their front porch so they too will benefit from a cooler greener street.  The many pedestrians will benefit, especially in summer.  Street trees also significantly improve property values so the residents should be very happy about this.

A discussion about how to tackle the issue of repeated tree vandalism in this area led to the following idea. Marrickville Council could send a multilingual letter to the residents of the area outlining the many benefits the new trees will provide to them, as well as the cost of planting (paid by residents’ rates) at this street.  This knowledge may be a powerful motivator for people to care for the trees, as well as stop the vandal from doing a repeat attack.

Thank you Marrickville Council for planting so many street trees & for greening the length of Calvert Street.  The trees have already made a big & positive difference.  I think Calvert Street will be a very pretty & pleasant street in a few years when the trees grow.

New trees were planted in holes left empty for years & the Gum tree planted to replace the Chinese Hackberry tree is growing well.  It all looks great.

New street trees were planted on both sides of Calvert Street at the Victoria Road end.

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