The idea that we would use random natural selection for urban trees feels archaic. We don't use natural selection for our crops or livestock or much of anything any more.

Urban trees will almost assuredly, like all of the other lifeforms we grow and rely on, be altered through human selection (be it simple old techniques like cross breeding, or advanced techniques like genetic modification)

i.e. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_tree

They already are. Most trees at the nursery are carefully cultivated strains, and many are clones.

I will admit it's handy when planting on my eighth acre to know ahead of time how big a tree will get, for example.

I think it will also involve selecting seeds only from "better" performing trees from the city tree gene pool. This will then ensure that beneficial mutations / changes survive. An unfortunate requirement of evolution to force progress.

In a way it will be survival of the fittest for trees. Unfortunately it might take considerable work from urban planners which I cannot see happening on a large scale any time soon.

Maybe a better idea will be to selectively breed species in hard environments and then distribute the seeds to cities that need them. With genetic modifications becoming prevalent in the food industry this might be not far away from happening.

> In a way it will be survival of the fittest for trees.

What if the "fittest" trees end up being the ugliest or most allergy-triggering?

My point is if its run by humans, it probably won't really be survival of the "fittest".

If it's run by humans, then human decision becomes part of the selection, shaping what "fit" means.

>I think it will also involve selecting seeds only from "better" performing trees from the city tree gene pool. This will then ensure that beneficial mutations / changes survive. An unfortunate requirement of evolution to force progress.

>In a way it will be survival of the fittest for trees. Unfortunately it might take considerable work from urban planners which I cannot see happening on a large scale any time soon.

I greatly look forward to Cambridge trees that wake up at 10am toke it up 'til noon and complain about life being hard, New Bedford trees that pack heat, Boston trees that think they're the center of the universe and other environment specific adaptations.

This already happened long ago by artificial selection and hybridization. One example that is found all over the world in Urban areas is the highly pollution resistant London Planetree:

https://arbordayblog.org/treeoftheweek/london-planetree-toug...

Only problem is that at least in my area, they constantly shed leaves, all season long.

The London plane tree, a hybrid between the eastern sycamore and the american sycamore, could be an example of this. They were some of the only trees that could cope with the heavy pollution in London during the industrial revolution. Here's more information if anyone's interested: https://londonist.com/2015/03/the-secret-history-of-the-lond...

EDIT: Looks like someone also mentioned the london plane before me