What European City has the most trees?
 

Now that I am back in America from my first trip to Europe, I really notice how many trees our cities have in comparison to Europe. I know there is an historical reason European cities were built more densely with little room for greenery. But i missed the landscaping and forested countryside of home (Westchester County NY), as I traveled in Europe.

Outside of Munich Germany I did not really see many cities in Europe that had many trees. Just a few planted ones on major roads, no landscaping to speak of.

So, what city in Europe has the most trees?

There's lots of wood in Amsterdam.

Is this an essay question? How are we being graded for the answer as there is no completely correct reply as one cannot have visited every city. Make it a multiple choice instead to make ir somewhat fair.

Good grief, don't compare apples and oranges!

Westchester County and European cities!!!

If you must compare, compare to Manhattan.

And did you happen to notice, by any chance, that Europe is much less blighted by urban sprawl? You can actually get into the country quite quickly from most European cities. Try that in the tristate area!

Mark - Do I detect a wee bit of raunchy humor in that reply!?!? Or do i just have a dirty mind!

I never seemd to notice the lack of trees when traveling in Europe except for Madrid perhaps. London seems to have a lot of green as well.

Come on, where would you expect landscaping/gardening in the historical heart of a city? You would have to tear down half a center!
Most cities have a lot of greenery at the periphery. Berlin is thought as one of the greenest cities of the world (I think 40% of the entire city area are parks, forests etc) but also many other cities are not far behind.

Sheezus... Westchester County is NOT a city "travelguru". Compare the number of trees on Manhattan to Paris why don't ya? That's fairer.

Washington Dc is a very large urban City and has a good sized urban forest. I did not see that in the many European Cities I visited. There is limited landscaping in Europe like in America. That is my point.

So what Cities in Europe have a good sized urban forest?

just taking these posts as sincerely as they written!

BTW yes you have a dirty mind the forrest going out towards Denhaag are beautiful (snigger)

"Washington Dc is a very large urban City"

I believe it is around 70 square miles. I would not consider that very large.

Does it have to be a forest, or will a park with trees do?

Rome: Villa Borghese, Villa Ada, Villa Doria Pamphili. Among others...

But since you did 10 cities in 14 days, you didn't get a chance to see any of them.

>Washington Dc is a very large urban City and has a good sized urban forest.

Is this urban forest within the city limits of Washington from, say, 1850?

Otherwise - most cities in Germany and Switzerland I have been to have access to large stretches of forest. I really don't understand what you mean.

When I was in Zürich we had a visiting professor from Tokyo who laways complimented the city as "there is so much nature right here"!

Just look at all the parcs plus the Bois in Paris.

I see a pattern in these posts

The pattern is called "taking the piss"

I'm not sure I understand the question, as many European cities have a lot of city parks and trees. Paris, for example, I think has one of the largest amounts of space devoted to greenery of any major city. I live in Wash DC and it's not one of the largest cities in the US, which is why I like it. The city itself is only around 600K population. IN any case, it can't be compared due to its function as is was developed solely as the nation's capital and wasn't appointed that after it had a long history as a typical large city with a diverse economy. So, you don't have the factories and things like that within Washington. Of course there are now businesses built in the burbs around it, but the city itself it rather unique for many reasons. Also, the fed govt does do a good job of keeping it landscaped. It has a pretty good amount of parkland within the city, I guess, but no more than many.

There isn't any more greenery within major cities in the US than in Europe that I noticed. I lived in NY just a bit and got depressed I had to move as you had to keep your lights on in the daytime, and I really missed some greenery. I mean more on a regular basis than having to go to Central Park. I have also lived in Columbus, Ohio and Los Angeles area, and never thought of them as having tons of greenery in the city center. Okay, maybe LA has more because it is less dense and more spread out, actually. But they don't downtown.

London is full of green spaces -- maybe not ALL trees but lots of trees and gardens.

When I lived in Vienna, there were lots of chestnut trees everywhere as well as many parks.

On our trip last month to Germany, we visited a lovely park of 200 year old Plane trees on the Neckar River in Tubingen.

Trust me, the green spaces ARE there. You must not have been looking in the right places.

I will get back to you I am still counting.

2,987,345. 2,987,346

Mark - tee hee!! :)

Treeste, Treepoli and of course the beautiful town of Treeton!!!

London has the most green space of any city in the world, but I don't know if they have the most trees!

Travel GURU??? Maybe it should be TravelNoKnow

Dublin has the largest enclosed city park in Europe. The Phoenix Park which is 2 miles west of the city centre is 1760 acres (712 hectares) in size and has very many trees. Among its other attractions is a herd of deer which has been there for over 400 years and some of whose members sometimes walk on the main road through the park.It does tend to keep the speed of the traffic down a bit.

Amsterdam is known the world over for a variety of things — but few people will think of its trees first, if at all.

Yet with 400.000 trees Amsterdam is one of the most tree-rich cities in Europe. By way of comparison, Paris has only 95.000 trees.

In the year 2005 Amsterdam was declared the Elm city of Europe, owing to the fact that the city’s streets and canals are lined with at least 75.000 Elms — many of them between 80 and 100 years old.

Small wonder, then, that Amsterdam employs a professional tree consultant, Hans Kaljee."
Amsterdam publicity

Tune in next week when we ask the questions:

How many IDs does travelguru1 have?

Why did travelguru stop posting under the screenname distant traveler?

What ever happened to Idaho-Jane?

>Idaho-Jane?
Was attacked by drunken Americans in Munich wearing her dirndl at Oktoberfest. Never seen again since then.

Westchester is not a city it's a suburb. And you'll find areas with lots of trees around many europena cities.

You'll alsoo find that most cities have large parks - a la Central Park in Manhattan. That's why it's called it city.

Please - try to use coparisons that make some sense.

And if you hated so much about europe - from the lack of trees, to the unfriendly people to the missing amenities in hotels and the poor food - and like the US so much better - I really suggest you stay here where you're so perfectly happy - idiotically grinning and becoming best friends with all the servers from one chain restaurant to another.

I'm surprised to read Paris has under 100000 trees. I think of it being green and park=ish. But greater Paris does have it's sprawl, covering a huge area with a huge population.

As far as Manhattan ... since I live smack between Riverside Park and Central Park, I think of NYC as a nice green place (with lots of sidewalk trees, too)

from about.com:
"The city estimates it has about 5.2 million trees, covering about 24 percent of the five boroughs’ land mass. New York City's Central Park is possibly the largest "urban forest park" in the World with more than 125 tree species.

We are currently fighting an invasion of the Asian Longhorn Beetle - it's said as many as 2,000,000 trees may be at risk.

I will love coming to Dublin! And yes,, I do think of Amsterdam canals as tree-lined.

And I always thought Atlanta was known as the most tree-rich US city.

Wow. I have always thought the opposite. I am always surprised at how many trees are in European cities compared to where I live! I live on the Canadian prairies, however, so trees are almost a rare commodity here. Wherever we go in Europe is a treat as the trees there are so huge, majestic, regal, ethereal and lovely. I can never, ever get over how many trees we see there.

This is one of the more bizzare trolls I've seen on this board. I think it tops, "what should I wear on Friday in Paris if it is raining?"

"So what Cities in Europe have a good sized urban forest?"

Um, off the top of my head, Brussels. The foret de Soignes (a beech forest) covers about 5000 hectares (just under 20 square miles) and is very much a part of the city.

Paris has 490,000 trees.

Approximately 100,000 of them line the streets and the others are in the parks and gardens.

Details in French:

La Ville de Paris a ainsi planté en sept ans (2001-2008) l’équivalent de ce qui a été planté auparavant en près de 40 ans, soit plus de 6 400 arbres. D’abord exclusivement plantés sur les grandes artères, les arbres trouvent désormais également leur place dans les petites rues. Avec déjà près de 97 000 arbres en ce début 2007, on peut dire que l’objectif des 100 000 arbres sera atteint fin 2009. Ensemble, les arbres d’alignement représenteraient 250 ha de surface plantée !

Plus globalement, Paris compte près de 490 000 arbres si l’on considère les jardins publics et privés, les cimetières, les talus du périphérique, les cours des écoles, les stades et autres complexes sportifs et, bien sûr, les deux "poumons verts" parisiens : les Bois de Vincennes et de Boulogne. En 2000, il n’y avait que 478 000 arbres ; l’accroissement total atteint 12 000 arbres.

>Idaho_Jaane?
Was actually deported to Oktoberfest in a Dirndl by the moderators of this forum, who also informed the drunken Bavarians what to do with 'her'.

Will probably reincarnate as Idaho_Jaaane some day.

Barcelona has a great amount of trees, on avenues, streets etc.

You are right there are some trees that were planted along the road and in parks in many European Cities but there are not many trees connected with private property in the cities and towns in most of Europe. Here in Westchester Co New York we have a million people, but if you fly into White Plains NY Airport you think you are going into a huge forest.

Find me a City or town of any size in Europe that has as amny trees as the Boston, Atlanta, Washington DC, Raleigh or Nashville areas.

It is difficult to grow trees when all you have is a window box, which if you live in a flat is all you have if you are lucky. Most city dwellers live in flats not the houses and spacious gardens of the suburbs. You are not comparing like with like.
Ok, you live outside of New York. I live in the equivalent area in relation to Amsterdam. I am surrounded by woods, trees in private gardens, etc. Vast areas of woodland. Look at Google Earth and you will see how much woodland there is. A lot is state owned it is true, but that is because the Dutch do no generally have massive gardens which can hold large trees.
The same is true of London. It is very wooded in the suburbs, very green in the centre too.
Spain is not so wooded, but then again nor is southern California - maybe the climate has a relationship to these things don't you think? If you live in an area with rain you get green trees, if you live in a hot dry area you don't.

I would suggest since you were so disappointed with your trip that you stick to the NE corner of the US in future and leave Europe to those who do appreciate it, it's scenery and it's friendly people.

Is this a contest, TG?

We'll have to take a look at these American cities when they are about 500 years older to be able to compare.

I haven't flown into Westchester airport, but I've flown into LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, OHare, LAX - not exactly the "landing strip in the forest" feel!

Let's not forget that when Europeans came to the new world, much of it was virtually covered with forest. The majority of old growth forest on US land was cut long ago, even if some has been replanted. As in Europe earlier, it was used to fuel the economy and build the country. The rate of sprawl and general expansion of our urban, suburban and ex-urban areas serves as a warning to preserve not only our remaining parks and woodlands but also our farms and meadows. With a trend toward developments where every house has an acre or two - a false kind of openness - we're losing open space at a quick pace. Look at the ever more sprawling distant suburbs of any average US city to see this.

I think that the 'old city' or historic centers of most European cities and towns are pretty much stone or brick, with very little greenery. These areas were built hundreds of years ago when greenspace was not part of the culture. Neighborhoods made up of narrow cobblestone streets and 15th century
buildings are very scenic and unique to an American who is used to cities with a mix of 20th century architecture and lots of greenspace. Of course cities such as Paris,London and Rome do have some beautiful tree lined streets and parks, but there are many urban areas in Europe that are nearly all stone.

If you hadn't rushed thru Europe doing 9 cities in 20 days and got off your tour bus for awhile, maybe you would have been able to spend time in the great green spaces, parks, and gardens offered by every single major European city.