The city of Stockholm spends half a billion on new trees

When Stockholm gets warmer, more trees are needed. That's what the new government in the city of Stockholm thinks, which has now decided to plant 12,500 trees.

The heat mapping done in 2022 shows that Stockholm today has approximately 180 heat islands that are over one hectare in size. There, temperatures can reach over 35 degrees during heat waves.

Östberga and parts of Järva are two of the areas singled out in the calculation. 18 percent of Stockholmers live in these areas, according to figures from the municipality.

So far, the municipality has planted approximately 2,000 trees per year and many of the trees are bought in from Germany. Now the red-green board agrees that even more trees should be planted.

Approximately 3,000 trees per year will be planted and more trees will be planted in the municipality.

- We think that the investment should cover all of Stockholm because we want to help all Stockholmers against the heat effect. But there are some parts where it looks worse. Östberga among others, Järva too. Because even though Järvafälten is green, there are no trees there. It doesn't help against the heat, says Cindy Falquet Lindh.

Among other things, the municipality wants to start what is called a tree hub, a plantation where trees are grown that are suitable for the climate in Stockholm, and a municipal seed bank.

- Since there are so many trees to be planted, we need a new way of working. It is excavated in different parts of town when we set up traffic. Every time you dig, you must in future investigate how many trees you can plant at the same time, says Cindy Falquet Lindh.

A total of SEK 500 million is allocated over the mandate period.

It is still unclear where the wooden hub will be located.

- Since the trees are needed to adapt the city to the climate, we need to work out which trees we need.

Are the parking lots dangerous?

- When we do work to make streets one-way or convert streets into pedestrian streets, we will take the opportunity to fill the streets with greenery and benches and everything possible. There are certainly some parking spaces that will disappear, says Cindy Falquet Lindh and continues:

- If you take Östberga for example, many environments there consist of bare, boring, concrete squares. It is the type of substrate that is enough to be able to plant trees, she says.