‘Small, flowering islands’: German city reveals how nature thrives when neighbours care for street tree beds

By Kelly Baldwin Heid, PhD Candidate, Ecology, Biodiversity and Nature-based Solutions ICLEI Europe, University of Freiburg
Rita de Sousa e Silva, Assistant Professor, Ecology, Leiden University

When Olivia Besters began caring for the patch of soil beneath the chestnut tree outside her home in Freiburg, Germany, more than 35 years ago, biodiversity was not on her mind.

“It was the optics,” she told me. The ground was compacted and littered with trash and dog “legacies”. Besters simply wanted the space directly outside her front door to look nicer. “Everything else came much later,” she said. “Thirty-five years ago, no one talked about climate change or insect decline.”

Over time, one tree bed expanded into 36 across Besters’ neighbourhood of Herdern. So deep is…

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