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Posted by Pamar 2 days ago

Can you see three trees?(www.not-ship.com)
281 points | 130 commentspage 3
qrios 9 hours ago|
Thanks for sharing! I had no idea about the “3-30-300 test,” even though I always pay attention to city trees.

I can, however, easily explain the division in Europe: In Italy (for example, in Palermo), the vigorous growth of many species very often leads to significant damage to infrastructure.

Here in Vienna, there’s a directory of trees[1] where you can see, among other things, the species and age.

[1] https://baumkarte.at/

oasisbob 7 hours ago|
As Alex Shigo likes to point out, it's too easy to try and explain infrastructure damage in terms of trees, while giving expansive soils a free pass.

That's like explaining frost-jacking of a wall in terms of temperature instead of hydrology.

mcdonje 11 hours ago||
I read Don Quixote and thought it might be fun to visit some parts of Spain mentioned in the books. Then after looking at some maps and seeing a stark lack of trees, I decided I wouldn't enjoy the trip.
projektfu 7 hours ago||
It didn't help that the King used them all up in the war with England a couple hundred years after Cervantes. A lot of Europe is trying to reforest now and hopefully that process continues.
pvaldes 7 hours ago||
We don't have the spectacular red Maple or Ponderosa pine forests that America has, this is true, but if this helps, some places in the North and Center of Spain (and many more in the rest of Europe) still look pretty much like Lothlorien. You just need to know where to go. Check Muniellos (oak), Tejera de Tosande (ancient yews and beech) or Irati forest (beech) for example.

The inner center and hot south can be more dusty and discouraging, but you can still be surprised by a few, not well known, jewels like Cabañeros, Valsain's pine forest, Alto Tajo, or Grazalema and the last relict Mediterranean -humid- forests in Cadiz. Plenty also of lagoons, marshes and aquatic ecosystems to visit, like Doñana or Daimiel. The biosphere reserve Hayedo de Montejo is located in Don Quixote's land.

bob1029 11 hours ago||
I like to use wildlife as a proxy for the quality of a location. If you can see things like rabbits and squirrels on a regular basis, you are probably doing reasonably ok. I have to put up fences and other barriers or the deer will eat everything in my yard.

I've seen suburban development that would easily satisfy the three tree test from any window on any property, but they still come off as desolate wastes. The age of the trees seems to be a non trivial factor.

RetroTechie 9 hours ago||
Yeah wildlife & its variety is a good indicator for how much an area is disturbed by humans.

For this reason, I'd prefer to have compact cities with a good amount of high-rise buildings and city parks dotted in between. As opposed to large sprawling suburban zones.

That leaves more space for natural areas outside cities where people are few & far between.

riffraff 10 hours ago||
@steerpike on HN coined the "time to sheep" metric, a measure of how long you have to travel before you're surrounded by sheep[0], which correlates reasonably well with quality of living.

Alas, doesn't work very well outside of britain, but it's a good metric :)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42802744

TurdF3rguson 9 hours ago||
Anywhere tropical is pretty far out from sheep, so that metric is clearly broken.
bdelmas 4 hours ago||
I would have like to see the map of cities that matches this 3-30-300 rule.
colordrops 4 hours ago|
I'm in a part of Los Angeles that matches 3-30, but virtually none of the city matches 300, and it's my least favorite thing about LA.
giancarlostoro 3 hours ago||
I live next to a greenbelt in Florida, so yes.
few 12 hours ago||
I learned from geoguessr pro, Rainbolt, that every tree and its species is mapped for NYC: https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/tree-map

Now I am curious if there is a dataset for the location of every tree in every city in the world? https://overpass-turbo.eu?

zimpenfish 9 hours ago|
'pm215 posted [0] earlier which does seem to be individual locations and species for London.

[0] https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-and-strategies/environm...

TimByte 11 hours ago||
What struck me is that the "three trees from your window" part sounds almost trivial until you actually test it
orbital-decay 9 hours ago||
I opened up Google Street for Valencia (claimed to be the worst in the article) and I struggle to find a street that plausibly fails this test.
__s 10 hours ago|||
Half dozen trees directly outside my window, but London Ontario is "the forest city" with an initiative to get 27% tree canopy to 34% by 2065
throw310822 10 hours ago||
From one window? From all windows? And how far from the window they should be visible, and how far can you look? Can you stick your head out? Can we cheat by planting a few very tall trees that can be seen from very far away? :)
Abimelex 11 hours ago||
> People who can see at least three trees from their window have better mental health than those who can't. It seems like the easiest of the three goals to achieve

Here we go, correlation does not equal causation. Simple as that. Planting 3 trees will not give you a better mental health nor will planting 10 trees. But moving in to an environment where many trees grow in front of your window will probably change a lot more than just putting trees in your view.

mapontosevenths 13 hours ago|
‘Beneath the pavement, the beach!’
jamiecurle 12 hours ago|
and three years later, the beech has Ganoderma due to root compaction!
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