One French City Is Treating Trees Like the Investment They Actually Are

There’s a 240-year-old purple beech tree standing in Sceaux, France—a living monument that’s survived two centuries of weather, politics, and urban change. It’s also one of 143 officially recognized“Remarkable Trees”in a city that’s quietly become a model for how to actually care about urban forests.

Sceaux doesn’t just have a lot of trees (65,000 across parks, green spaces, and private properties). The city treats them like infrastructure that matters. Mayor Philippe Laurent frames it plainly:“We see trees as a long-term investment.”And he’s not being poetic. The city adopted a Tree Charter that dictates everything from which species get planted—only ones adapted to local soil and climate—to how landowners must protect them during construction. Residents can even get a subsidy of up to €200 to plant trees. It’s the kind of systematic, unsexy approach that actually works.

The real innovation? Sceaux’s tree team thinks creatively about the problems trees face. They’ve installed wheelchair-friendly grills to protect roots and inject nutrient supplements into soil around struggling trees. Workshops and guided walks keep residents and schoolchildren connected to the green spaces around them. It’s not about planting a tree and calling it a day—it’s about building what Laurent calls“both individual and collective action”over time. That matters, because trees face real threats: pollution, disease, reduced rainfall, and extreme weather that only gets more intense.

The economic case for this kind of thinking is surprisingly solid. Lisbon earns $4.48 for each $1 invested in urban forestry projects. Trees boost biodiversity, contribute to urban resilience, and—according to Laurent—help us relax. In an era when city planning often gets reduced to real estate math, Sceaux is betting that a forest is worth more than the land underneath it.

What would it look like if your own city treated its trees with this kind of intention?