INTRODUCTION
Launceston City Council has embarked upon a project to GREENlaunceston and consequently like TOWNhalls', wherever, Urban Foresters launched surveys reportedly to glean the citizenries understandings and aspirations. As is all too often the case such administrative initiatives come with a mindset that suggests that what is being sought is an endorsement for a plan in hand, a planner's 'vision' arrived at somewhat in isolation and too often in the dark.
Likewise, in the vernacular, wherever it is that these visionary plans come from, the forms are often devised by BLOWins who are not actually, or not yet, part of the cultural reality they are working within. This is not to say that they have no expertise, they do, but its not by necessity of the vernacular, drawing on the shared experience, informed by 'the belonging' to a/the place.
In any event some 'mindfullness' of the purposefulness of 'GREENING' a city would be useful. The implication generally seems to be to increase CANOPYcover as a mechanism towards cooling urban landscapes. However, while that has utility towards mitigating against climate change, the sequestration of carbon or an increase in BIOmass – useful and multi-purpose biomass – might well be more purposeful if the 'GREENING' was understood, and interrogated, in that context.
Culturally, socially and ecologically, meaning is always invested in the context of an understanding.
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