Volume and the urban forest: The vegetal politics of urban forestry contestations in Melbourne and Darwin, Australia

In this paper we take inspiration from geographies of volume to consider the drivers effecting tree canopy expansion in two Australian cities: Melbourne and Darwin. Presenting empirical material collected via semi-structed interviews with city residents and urban forest workers labouring with the urban forest, we contribute qualitative understanding about efforts to expand urban forests, understanding that has predominantly been captured through a quantitative lens. In so doing, we consider the vegetal politics of urban forestry practices that contrast with imaginations of bounded city space presented in policy, and which challenge efforts to increase tree canopy volume. To do this, we draw on cultural geographic and feminist accounts of volume as ‘immersive’ and ‘inhabited’ to highlight the intersecting geographies of tree and human lives in the city. Thinking with volume is valuable in this context because it attunes us to the relations from which emotion laden contestations arise. These contestations are important to consider because they pose challenges to urban forest expansion, a recognised climate change adaptation response . Our analysis also brings non-human considerations into the volumetric city. We foreground how trees transgress and influence other urban spaces. Such transgressions can incite violence towards the urban forest, which in turn, spurs urban forestry practices that foster gentleness to increase affirmative human feelings for city trees. Taking note of such practices, we contend that urban forest policies need to account for material and metaphorical volumes of arboreal life.