Residents Who Rush to Count Trees

When Ronit Zaks, an employee of Ramat Hanadiv, resident of Zichron Ya’akov, and leading member of the Tree Protectors – Zichron Ya’akov WhatsApp group, begins to talk about her involvement in protecting trees in her town, she is quick to mention the most recent tree that the group managed to save from being cut down, a huge Syrian maple. ‘Right now I’m writing to update the group that we managed to suspend the tree-cutting licence’, she says happily, and mentions the carob tree next to the synagogue that still stands proudly thanks to the alertness of the group’s members.

The group began eighteen months ago with four members, and today it numbers several dozen participants, with almost daily communication. In the Zichron Ya’akov tree-mapping project led by Ramat Hanadiv in partnership with the Zichron Ya’akov Local Council the group was a crucial factor; to date, its members have mapped 2616 trees in open spaces and hundreds of trees in private gardens – mostly during focused campaigns over a few intensive weeks. The tree survey and mapping paved the way for the planting of new trees to shade the walking trails between public buildings and schools in Zichron Ya’aov. ‘This joint initiative to shade the urban space in Zichron Ya’akov has already led to the planting of about 150 trees along the path to Hachoresh School’, says Taya Mavor, Director of the Department of Environmental Quality and Sustainability in the Zichron Ya’akov Local Council.

These trees are the first step to achieving the objective that the local council set itself: to encourage walkability in the town by planning plantings that will increase the amount of shade along the main walking axes in the urban space.

‘The community is part of the system that helps to protect trees in the urban space and plan for the future’, says Dr. Liat Hadar, Director of Research at Ramat Hanadiv, who is involved in the project. ‘Here there are many people keeping their eye on the trees and someone will act when there’s a problem’, she states, and explains through the action of the group the importance and

The involvement of Ramat Hanadiv in the project was natural, following the approach that Ramat Hanadiv is not alone on the mountain, ‘We don’t look only at ourselves, but expand our view and consider the urban forest around us, because we’re one space and the Zichron Ya’akov forest and Ramat Hanadiv are connected,’ says Liat. In this context we note the concept “urban forest” which in recent times has come up often in environmental forums in Israel and around the world: it refers to all of the trees and shrubs growing in the city and on its outskirts, which are part of the space in which people live, work, and spend their time. In fact, mapping the trees provides the basis for caring for and enhancing the urban forest; in this way the residents enjoy the trees in their living space and also contribute to the enrichment and rehabilitation of the forest. ‘The forest has no boundaries and is part of the open system of nature in the city’, Liat clarifies, and emphasises that there is a law that protects trees and they are part of the infrastructure of the city and just as important as anything else, ‘so if a tree obstructs construction, road building, or an electricity pole, we don’t cut it down but rather we think of creative solutions that will protect trees instead of focusing only on the engineering aspects.’