Birmingham TreePeople’s Trustees are hardworking industry professionals, who volunteer for the charity and provide their time and services. Several of them started their journey’s with their involvement in BTP. This ranges from our training, workshops or talks, tree planting and maintenance, street tree surveying, Treemembrance, and more. Find out here just who is responsible for delivering our projects, the Trustees of BTP, and their many skills and qualifications they bring to the table.
Nina Griffths
Nina Griffith’s deeper interest in trees emerged from attending volunteer conservation sessions with the Friends of Manor Farm Park, Northfield. She joined Birmingham TreePeople as an urban forest volunteer in 2018, and has thoroughly enjoyed the journey so far. With the training received over the last few years, she has used the newfound knowledge in her community.
She took over the maintenance of the neglected Community Orchard at Manor Farm Park. Nina regularly imparts knowledge to other volunteers, regarding the maintenance and care of the orchard. She shares the responsibility of maintaining and caring for the trees around the her allotment plot at Harborne Lane.
Nina also provides advice and training to various Friends groups, such as Bournville Park and Manor Farm Park, in the care of existing and newly planted trees. She has led many tree walks at the local park. She is currently studying the Level 2 Arboriculture course through BTP, learning even more about trees!
Nina was asked to join Birmingham TreePeople as a Trustee in February 2021. She is currently the Trustee Coordinator for the Street Tree Survey, on behalf of Birmingham City Council and Kier. Her role involves training and assisting volunteers in the art of tree surveying.
James Tucker
Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry at University of Birmingham, James (Jim) Tucker is a recent addition to the board of the TreePeople. He has a long history of community engagement across the city, and is a steadfast champion of trees and nature.
Jim has been the lead for The Zephaniah Forest planning team, helping to navigate the project with other Trustees and the employees, to ensure the legacy vision for Benjamin was carried out in Burbury Park, with the Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group.
Deanne Brettle
Deanne (Dee) Brettle worked as a Primary School Forest School Leader for 10 years. She spent regular time in a small patch of woodland, experiencing all the seasons and actively managing the land. Playing alongside the children, she remembers fondly. She currently works for the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Forest Research as a Project Officer.
Dee has been a Trustee since 2022. She became a volunteer when they called to action for a citizen science project, surveying newly planted street trees. She has recently enjoyed working on a project to digitise the tree trails in parks using TreePlotter. Dee hopes it will get more people to ‘see’ trees, and experience the same awe and wonder she does.
Dee is now the Birmingham TreePeople Chair, working on a global urban forestry project called CARMINE, whilst studying for her PhD in trees with University of Birmingham!
Julianne Statham
Juliane Statham is a fairly recent member of the board, and qualified through our L2 Arboriculture training programme. She has involved herself in all aspects of the TreePeople and is a great asset, taking over the responsibility of the Treemembrance Programme. This is the memorial tree planting programme for the city, providing commemorative trees for groups and individuals.
Julianne regularly supports other Trustees and the BTP employees at events, providing fantastic photos and captions, fully immersing herself in every experience at a tree-related event. Her passion and dedication really shines through with every knew thing she learns.
Lawrence Weston
Lawrence is an early career Tree Person, and new entrant into the sector. In his day job, Lawrence is a grower of organic fruit and veg, with an interest in top fruit, particularly apples! He moonlights as a hedgelayer, and is pursuing a range of practical arboricultural training.
A graduate from the University of Birmingham, Lawrence completed the BTP Level 2 Arboriculture training programme, alongside a number of the other Trustees. He originally became involved with the TreePeople in 2020, as a volunteer street tree surveyor in Selly Oak, whilst in his final year of university. He encourages others to sign up to be an Urban Forest Volunteer and immerse themselves in the world of trees!
As our youngest Trustee, Lawrence is now heading the Orchard Programme, bringing community orchards to new areas, as well as grafting and pruning sessions, making sure these community assets remain flawless.
Advisors
After ten years, four of our original Trustees have stepped down from the committee. The Board of Trustees are delighted that Mac, Simon, Steve and Tonia have offered to continue supporting BTP whenever help and advice is needed. We want to acknowledge the huge amounts of time, passion and enthusiasm that they brought to BTP. The legacy they leave is a strong, well-respected charity, making a substantial impact on trees and people in Birmingham. They should be proud of what we’ve achieved so far.
Tonia Clark
Principal Finance and Bids Officer, Birmingham City Council, Tonia Clark is the past Chair of Birmingham TreePeople, and has been involved from the very early days. Tonia was one of the first volunteers to complete the L2 Arboriculture course. She now delivers training and talks about trees at partnership events regularly.
Tonia is a bit of a tree hugger and loves learning about trees. She wishes that more people in Birmingham lived in tree lined streets and near tree-filled open spaces, and she’s doing what she can to make this a reality. She is now studying a Masters in trees!
Ian McDermott
Ian (Mac) McDermott began work in Horticulture and Arboriculture in 1976. His first job was with a local company before going back to college. He has worked in all sectors of the Arboricultural and Urban Forestry industry, serving at a high level for both the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA), and the Municipal Tree Officers Association (MTOA). He holds the Professional Diploma in Arboriculture and is a Chartered Horticulturist.
Ian took early retirement from Local Authority in 2014, and then worked as an Arboricultural trainer and lecturer, having worked for a number of land-based colleges teaching Level 6 Arboriculture. Most of his time was spent training volunteers to work with municipalities in managing the Urban Forest, and was heavily involved in Tree Warden schemes across the Midlands region. He delivered the BTP training package, the ABC Level 2 in Arboriculture, amongst others, during his time as a Trustee.
Past projects include managing one of the largest iTree projects in the UK, consultancy work in the planning sector, and involvement with the UNECE panel of experts. A strong advocate of community engagement in the management of Municipal trees, Mac served on several charity boards and Friends groups. He now lives in the Isle of Man, training a next generation of Tree Officer.
Simon Needle
Simon Needle has worked for Birmingham City Council since 2014, having gained extensive training and knowledge in the field of Arboriculture in the years previous, and following.
He has held the position of Principle Ecologist, providing ecological and biodiversity advice and guidance across all departments, but primarily for planning. He also contributed towards policy and strategy documents, HS2 consultation input, SuDS design document, and regeneration master-plans.
Moving onto become the council’s Principle Arboriculturalist, he dealt with TPO’s, tree works in Conservation Areas, and Planning Applications. He contributed towards strategy and policy documents, providing arboricultural advice across the directorates.
He was the Strategic Lead for Urban Forestry and Nature, leading on implementation of Birmingham’s Urban Forest Master-plan, development and implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain policy, and Climate Adaptation through Nature Based Solutions.
Steve Watson
Steve Watson has a career background in engineering, industrial ceramics and remuneration consulting. As the Treasurer, he monitors the movement of money, amongst several other behind the scenes activities. He supports the urban forest volunteers during workshops and events.
Steve would like BTP to have a representative nominated for each Ward to support residents, Tree Officers, Councillors, and MP’s. His future aspirations for the organisation are the continuation of significant contributions BTP have begun to make, improving the management of Birmingham’s urban forest.
The Trustees have some helping hands…
Katy Hawkins, Engagement Officer, and Charlotte McDermott, Communications Officer, have joined Birmingham TreePeople as paid employees for the very first time in 2023 for the UFA.
This has been made possible due to our participation in the Urban Forest Accelerator (UFA) programme: in partnership with National Trust, Woodland Trust, and Community Forest Trust, the project is designed to respond to Council and communal needs, by improving urban green space through the encouragement of tree planting, communications, and community engagement.
Birmingham TreePeople, alongside Birmingham City Council, have been the propagators of this programme within the City of Birmingham, using the city as a preliminary case study that coincides with the implementation of the Urban Forest Master Plan, another project focusing on the increase of ward-level canopy cover to improve the health and well-being of residents.
Due to the UFA’s focus on community and residential involvement, Heritage Fund provided the finances for the project, and for BTP to garner two employees to enact Communications and Engagement, something rare for a charity to obtain. This project runs from June 2023 to October 2024.
BTP, with its humble origins in the Tree Warden Scheme by BCC in 2016, to achieving the city’s status as Tree City in 2019, completing 2023’s iTree Eco survey in record time, our non-profit organisation that prioritises the urban forest has grown from strength to strength, establishing one of the largest volunteer networks in the UK.
Matt Cox has joined the TreePeople team at the beginning of November 2024 as the Operations Manager, thanks to our generous grant from The National Lottery Community Fund, and he will be joining our two current employees who will also be staying with us! Here is a little bit about Matt:
Matt (he/him) is a gardener and community activist with an early career in design and woodworking. He’s been an outdoors person from a young age with a love for the natural world and a fascination with the cycles of ecosystems.
He gained an MSc in Biodiversity, Wildlife and Ecosystem Health from the The University of Edinburgh in 2019 and since then has been working with urban green spaces and communities in underserved areas of the city.
Matt’s work has centred around how communities can take a more active role in improving, nurturing and advocating for more and better green space within the built environment whilst harnessing the power of plants (and the wider biodiversity) to tackle social and environmental injustice and inherited pollution.
