Planting one million new trees can make Belfast prettier and healthier

An important project in Northern Ireland's capital city seeks to plant a million trees.

The plan is to double the existing number of trees and shrubs in Belfast.

The timetable for completion is a mere 12 years away, in 2035.

Already more than 60,000 trees have been planted.

All of the aims behind the One Million Trees Project are laudable.

They are to:

• reduce carbon;

• improve air quality;

• reduce flooding;

• increase urban cooling;

• support and enhance biodiversity;

• improve physical and mental health and wellbeing

That last goal is important.

Curiously, there is no reference to enhancing the beauty of Belfast as being a central aim.

But streets that are lined with trees are immediately more attractive than identical ones which have none.

Such beauty makes our surroundings more agreeable and that in turn improves our wellbeing.

The environmental impact of, for example, enhancing biodiversity or reducing flooding are valuable too.

Remember how in the first lockdown animals sensed that humans were in retreat, and birdsong became louder?

City living is a tricky business: a very high concentration of people living in the same small area creates challenges and tensions and pollution.

Yet if enough space is made for trees, the improvement in air quality is of itself a major achievement.

Northern Ireland, indeed all of Ireland, is one of the most deforested parts of Europe. Yet this island was once heavily forested.

We need more trees in urban and rural areas and the One Million Trees project is a welcome part of that process.