Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote: “In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love...”; well, those who attended a recent seminar organised by Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar and Attard local council came away convinced that Malta needs to start a new love affair, not ‘lightly’ but earnestly and wholeheartedly, with trees. Whether you like them or loathe them, we need them – not just away in forests but next to our homes and schools and workplaces, in the streets where we live and move and breathe.

As well as their aesthetic beauty, and a host of other benefits, trees counteract pollution by absorbing carbon dioxide and exhaling oxygen; they reduce summer heat in urban areas by several degrees thus creating a more comfortable microclimate, and they even provide a habitat for other species which prey on, and so help to eliminate, mosquitoes! Properly selected for Malta’s climate, planted, propagated and pruned by experts, they need not disturb pavements or the foundations of buildings; and far from being a drain on water resources, trees actually help to trap water in the ground instead of letting it run off to the sea. The leaf-fall from the deciduous kinds can be recycled to provide rich compost for other plants; and as for bird-droppings – isn’t the sound of birdsong worth the little bit of extra effort required to clean up these songsters’ leavings?

Coming from the UK, a tree-loving nation that virtually bristles with tree preservation orders and tree organisations, I am mystified by Malta’s apparent antipathy towards these miracles of nature. Governments and people alike seem quite happy to allow any amount of dust from building sites and fumes from traffic to make a poisonous soup of our air, but resent the presence of the very gifts nature provides to purify our atmosphere and beautify our landscape. So, this Spring, whatever colour party is in power by then, let’s fall in love!

Let local councils and ministers for the environment and resources start unequivocally to embrace the findings that tree research has proved beyond doubt, and act upon them. Let them promote trees, plant trees, and preserve trees. Let the horticultural and environmental groups unite to bring about a sea-change in attitude towards trees. Let public information be made available about the benefits of trees, what types to choose, and how to plant and maintain them. Let the medical profession, treating so many with asthmatic problems and coronary diseases, add their voice in support for more trees. Let everyone make a concerted effort to turn this arid rock into the cleaner, greener, fertile little island paradise it cries out to become.