In her introduction to this book of essays on trees, editor Susette Goldsmith recounts the sort of incident which probably occurs in every neighbourhood in the land and illustrates very well the conflicting views that people have about trees.

Looking out the window of her home, she saw a neighbour trimming a young self-sown pōhutukawa on the edge of the footpath outside his house because he thought its leaves were brushing the powerlines and affecting his computer. Another neighbour passing by urged the trimmer to cut the whole tree down as it was impeding his view. So Susette leaned out the window and spoke in defence of the tree which provided a welcome green frame for her own view.

The tree trimmer opted for a compromise: only the branches nearest the wires were trimmed, so his power lines were safe, the other neighbour had a view with less greenery and Suzette had a view with a ragged green frame.

But that wasn’t the end of the affair. A few weeks later households in the area received letters from the local council reprimanding whoever had illegally pruned vegetation on public land. Then a council team turned up and demolished the tree with a chainsaw. When Susette contacted the council, she was told it was policy to remove all trees on public land whose roots threatened the structure of nearby crib walls.

“The point of this story,” she writes, “is not to cast blame: none of the parties – including the tree – was at fault. My interest in the proceedings stems from the fact that each of the protagonists in our small suburban drama . . . was acting from a vastly different viewpoint. . . This episode was not just about the tree, but was, in fact, also about us – what we individually believe in and stand for. That is what this book is about.”

That sounds like a topic for a valuable and interesting debate. But, unfortunately, it is not to be found in the pages of this book. Each of the 12 essays is a celebration of the glories of trees from a wide range of perspectives. There are powerful evocations of their inspirational beauty, how they give us a sense of place, their ability to store carbon, their medicinal value, the oases of tranquility they provide amidst our concrete jungles, the uniqueness of our indigenous trees and the sadness of the present massacre of urban trees since the removal of legal protection. Most are well worth reading for the insights they offer into how special trees are.

But, as Susette’s introductory tale illustrates, that covers only one aspect of the attitudes to trees. The views of the tree trimmer, the neighbour who wanted an unimpeded view and the council are nowhere to be found. And that is a pity because as a society we do need to have an intelligent discussion about trees and try to reach a consensus about them that will work.

It is a tragedy that, at a time when factors like urban intensification, climate change and our growing separation from nature make the role of trees ever more important, there are fewer and fewer of them in our urban landscape.

But that is not going to be solved by simply ignoring the opinions which drive the tree trimmers, the neighbours protective of their views or the council teams seeking to prevent damage to infrastructure, because they are not all mindless environmental vandals. The wrong trees in the wrong places can affect powerlines, block drains, make houses dark and damp, and destroy footpaths. And ill-thought-through laws that make it prohibitively expensive to give a tree a reasonable trim unfortunately do provide a motive for property owners to solve the problem by cutting them down when they get the chance.

A book that embraced the full range of views on trees in a thoughtful way, and perhaps like Susette’s tree trimmer looked for a workable compromise, would be even more worth reading.

Perhaps I should add that while I was reading this book, I spent the weekend at our bach in Kaiaua and planted a few more trees to replace those killed by storm surge and drought. I am also actively involved with three organisations - Pūkorokoro Miranda Naturalists’ Trust, Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi and Restoring Takarunga Hauraki - making huge efforts to restore our native habitat.

Reviewed by Jim Eagles