Shade of the Canopy

UK Tree Cities Forum

Tree Cities of the World, UK Tree Cities Forum 2024, left to right: Arbor Day Foundation’s Matt Spitsen from Nebraska, and Birmingham TreePeople’s Steve Watson, Deanne Brettle, Charlotte McDermott, Lawrence Weston, Nina Griffiths, Ian McDermott, Simon Needle, Tonia Clark, and Julianne Statham.

The first UK Tree Cities Forum took place on the 11th June 2024 in the University of Birmingham’s The Exchange, seeing a menagerie of expert speakers take to the podium to discuss The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Cities of the World programme. From councils all over the country, attendees have had the chance to hear first-hand experience from professionals in their field of urban forestry, and why their special cities received the Tree City status that they have proudly and individually achieved.

Opening Tree Cities Presentations

After an introductory remark from Kate Sheldon of Trees for Cities – the charity responsible for organising the programme in the UK and the host of today and tomorrow’s conferences in partnership with BTP – our first speaker was Matt Spitsen of the Arbor Day Foundation. With their in-depth network of community partners, they’ve been planting trees where they’re needed most by engaging volunteers and corporate leaders, planting millions of trees in degraded forest land as just one example.

The World Forum on Urban Forests 2018 saw the birth of the Tree Cities of the World, and by its second iteration in 2023 garnered 1,000 participants from 60 countries. Today, there are 200 tree cities in 22 countries around the world. Matt mentioned an analogy of a young boy throwing a rock into a pond, leaving without waiting for the ripples and let the pebble sink. We must plant the seeds and wait for them to grow, taking our time to engage communities and meet the criteria needed to make change.

Cecil Konijnendijk was the second speaker, Founder of Nature Based Solutions Institute and instigator of the 3-30-300 rule now employed across most of the urban forestry sector for evidence-based metrics, and this global urban forester has revolutionised tree strategy not only in his home country of the Netherlands, but every country he’s operated within. Highlighting the impact green space has on our mental health and well-being, and how the monetisation of these natural assets enhances the assessment and management of the urban forest within a region. Cecil believes adding value to the programme by means of activities, standards revisions, visibility and awareness drives, and expanding the global scope into underrepresented regions, will boost the programme exponentially.

Tree City Standard Presentations

Birmingham City Council

Birmingham TreePeople’s Simon Needle, Birmingham City Council, discussed the first standard of the Tree City programme – there are 5 standards that a city must meet to qualify as a Tree City – establishing responsibility. Due to the challenges this city faces with a rising young population, myriad low canopy high priority wards and high greenhouse emissions, maintaining appropriate green space has been difficult. Falling tree deaths marred the Council over a decade ago, and to rectify the tree management situation they have endeavoured – the last 15 years – to renew the public realms lost trees, and business improvement districts have picked up on this to introduce more greenery into the city centre.

Working with Birmingham Trees for Life to plant more trees in Birmingham, the Broad Street plane tree was still removed, due to the new Metro line extension, leading to a review of their street tree policy. This new policy was received with open arms and unanimously voted for by a cross-party board and using CAVAT to evaluate the trees as community assets. Now that Birmingham TreePeople are employing community engagement surrounding nature and trees, by shaping and delivering equity-based planting and community urban forestry around the city, the volunteer network has grown exponentially, the Urban Forest Masterplan has been constructed to inform green infrastructure until 2051. All of this led to Birmingham receiving Tree City status in 2019, in response to genuine municipal and residential needs.

Belfast City Council

Belfast City Council was the next Tree City to present, regarding the second criteria for the programme: setting the rules. Ross Deering of Belfast posed the stark contrast between their concrete jungles versus green space, thus employed a Tree Strategy like ours built on a similar model, and was also produced in partnership with Treeconomics.

John Rose, Treeconomics representative, in the second half of this talk stated the importance of stakeholder engagement and public consultation in implementing the strategy, as it is the cornerstone of success for these types of projects. Local detail equals the tools for local action, and by informing communities using tree mapping also informs the planting itself, ensuring long-term involvement and care. It isn’t just about setting the rules, it’s about building upon them.

City of Edinburgh Council

Steven Cuthill from City of Edinburgh Council took to the podium to discuss the third standard, know what you have, and took us through the key stages of their journey from 2012’s Forest and Woodland Strategy, through to the Nature Emergency declared last year. 2013 saw an iTree survey take inventory of the city’s trees, to inform the action plan the following year in 2014 to address the attrition (damage, vandalism, weather, etc.) by initially crunching numbers. 75% are privately owned, creating intricate challenges, but they have still achieved 36% towards the overall target and became a Tree City in 2020. From here, new realistic targets could be set for achieving a ‘Million Tree City’, introducing citizen science projects to involve the public and increase benefits for those residents, keeping it simple to build on their curiosity; communal involvement sheds true light on the urban environment.

Steven Cuthill presenting for Edinburgh Council, with Kathryn Hand from Forest Research.

Kathryn Hand of Forest Research joined Steven, by delving into the reasons citizen science projects are imperative for community engagement, data collection, and long-term establishment or maintenance. We already know trees make us happier and healthier, so those that participate feel those benefits, and by engaging as soon as possible the motivation is increased, and the networking sustained over the period of the project. Online projects are challenging in the sense there’s no face-to-face contact, that’s why group fieldwork appears to draw garner and endure attention, due to the increase in social benefits and targeted localised work is more appealing, especially to individuals.

Tree Cities of the World UK Tree Cities Forum 2024, Chris and Catherine
Chris Engel presenting for Cardiff Council with Catherine Horan of Trees for Cities.

Cardiff Council

Cardiff Council’s Chris Engel’s presentation discussed the fourth standard for becoming a Tree City of the World, allocating resources, and the council’s ambition to crease the canopy cover from 18.9% to 25% by 2030, where most cities have a baseline of achieving 10%. They primarily had no expansive budget and hence realised the trees were merely being maintained, for those that weren’t lost, so the One Planet Cardiff Strategy – with a net zero ambition – was introduced, an iTree survey conducted 2015-16, and their pilot project secured almost one million in sponsorship, funding two paid posts to organise the programme and volunteers (similarly to the Future Parks Accelerator and Urban Forest Accelerator programmes). The most impressive feat this council has undertaken is the installation of what was originally a temporary, intermediary tree nursery for the city, eventually moving onto growing their own trees from seed.

Catherine Horan of Tree for Cities led the second part of this presentation, exploring the role of procurement and the social value of green projects, with an emphasis of the economic and environmental benefits that come alongside.

Ipswich Borough Council

Ipswich Borough Council’s Lisa Stannard covered the fifth standard of celebrating achievements, humorously highlighting the detest for national holidays the project manager harboured, so ‘Ipswich Loves Trees Day’ was born on Valentine’s Day. Through advising and informing that whip planting was good for families with children as well as Councillors, with the trees eventually growing to meet the requirements needed. By teaching people a new understanding of trees, such as the physical well-being, mental health, and social benefits, the community engaged tree planting was well-received, leading to the council establishing community orchards in half of the wards in the area so far (with an aim for one in every ward).

The City of Ealing has been a Tree City for 5 years, and Trees for Cities’ Susannah Littlewood discussed their annual celebration, Ealing Tree Festival, beginning 2022. The initial event garnered 100 attendees to visit the many arts and crafts, nature, and tree-themed stands. The 2023 festival celebrated the programme by mobilising the community, and teaching more tree benefits to expand the residential knowledge, leading to the 2024 festival taking place across the 7 towns of Ealing.

Questions & Answers Session

During the questions and answers at the end of the presentation session, a question was asked concerning the measurement of tree establishment, where Edinburgh stated although they account for net gain losses in tree numbers, there is still more work to do on mortality rates, a theme that unfortunately plagues all of tree planting. That’s why these councils and non-profit organisations are working closely with communities, encouraging them to take ownership of their local trees, to care for them and see them grow with us.

Tree Cities of the World UK Tree Cities Forum 2024, Ana Macías

Due to a technical error, Ana Macías from Arbocity – representing a Spanish Tree City – was unable to give her full presentation, but for what was heard the themes were carried over from the previous talks, like upskilling through courses, raising awareness through conferences and event presence, and planting with community engagement. The residents are at the heart of the urban forest in any country around the globe.

Tree Cities Afternoon Sessions

The afternoon sessions saw the participants working with facilitators at each table, planning and reviewing new themes and ideas for the expansion of the Tree Cities network and scheme in the UK. After the inspiring talks beforehand, the discussions were insightful and fruitful, and the future of the Tree Cities of the World programme in the UK looks adequately bright.

We want to deeply thank every enthusiastic organiser, speaker, sponsor, and attendee individually, for making this conference a ‘start as we mean to go on’ moment, leaving us waiting eagerly for the second UK Tree Cities Forum next year.

The first UK Tree City Forum was organised by Trees for Cities, in partnership with Birmingham TreePeople, and sponsored by Woodland Dwelling, Kier Group, The Woodland Trust, and the University of Birmingham.

Royal Parks UFMP Presentation

The royal parks, presentation of UFMP, room full of attendees

Birmingham lost its long serving parks director – Darren Share – last Christmas, when he made the career move to take over as the Director of The Royal Parks. This was probably the only move that was a promotion from the multi-award-winning Brum Parks. Darren is involved in producing a comprehensive tree strategy, that binds all the various Royal Parks Strategies together, so where better to look than BTP, with our exemplar Urban Forest Masterplan.

Consequently, BTP got an invitation to present the UFMP as a case study to the Royal Parks Trustees and managers for them to consider, and Mac was asked to attend the Old Police House (RP have their own Police Force) in Hyde Park to make the presentation. He was joined by Tony Kirkham, as the only other external guest to present to a packed room, on a day dedicated to strategic tree management.

Our presentation took the attendees on the journey from 2016 to the present day, highlighting the 18 months of intense work to produce the UK’s first masterplan. It was very well received by the board, and we hope we have been beneficial in managing the King’s trees.

Story Workshop

Katy Hawkins ran a tree-lated story workshop, alongside Nechells POD, under the canopy of Bloomsbury Park trees on 30th May. Synthia, local storyteller, assisted Katy with the workshop and also spun an enthralling yarn, in between tree activities!

The sun beamed down in between light showers, under the gazebo with warm blankets, exchanging knowledge and stories about nature.

The generous lunch spread was thoroughly enjoyed by all children and parents alike, and one of the wonderful participants included Halima, who came from Hall Green to attend.

We wanted to thank the roughly 30 people who attended, as well as the POD, Synthia, and Julianne. It was a great turnout, and we hope to see some of you again very soon!

Perry Barr Street Trees

Urban Tree Festival 2024

Urban Tree Festival: Tree Equity Online Seminar

The Woodland Trust kindly invited us to speak at their Tree Equity seminar, as part of the Urban Tree Festival 2024. After Paul Wood from Urban Tree Festival introduced the Tree Equity seminar as part of the wider festivities, Adam Cormack from The Woodland Trust introduced Tree Equity on the whole, and their Tree Equity Score tool developed with American Forests.

Tree equity differences, good and bad

Mark Johnston was the first speaker, with a wealth of knowledge and extensive background in arboriculture and a focus on the urban environment. Relaying a personal and historical view of tree equity through his experiences, he informed us the concept of urban forestry coupled with equity is something that has long since existed, yet never quite realised in poorer areas of cities – a problem we still have.

Katy (second from left) spoke at Woodland Trust's Tree Equity seminar, for the Urban Tree Festival 2024
Urban Tree Festival, Tree Equity in the UK, Woodland Trust

We were blessed to hear once again Beth Collier, Founder of Wild in the City, who helped The Woodland Trust as a consultant through phases of creating the scoring tool. Her non-profit organisation focuses on the relationship between people of colour/ethnic minorities and nature, bringing people together through her qualified workshops on ecotherapy. From an environmental justice angle, Beth wants to use tree equity to highlight further the unequal access to green space for ethnic minorities, and use it to plan a better urban forest to close the gap – something we’ve already started.

Our Engagement Officer, Katy Hawkins, was the last to speak about our tree planting initiative last year for Tree Week 2023. She explained her process of engaging groups and communities – something echoed from Mark – being an important process, and how this lays the foundations for further partnerships and endeavors. We work with local community groups to empower them and to take ownership of their trees, by watering them, pruning them, as well as general love and care.

We want to thank Adam at The Woodland Trust for inviting us onto this fantastic seminar, and we look forward to the next Urban Tree Festival event: tomorrow Katy will be running a Tree Equity walk and talk around Nechells, starting at Nechells POD at 10:30-1, a great follow-up to this online seminar. Follow this link if you’d like to join us: https://urbantreefestival.org/birmingham-tree-equity

13/05/24

Tree Equity Walk & Talk

Urban Tree Festival, tree equity walk
Tree Equity Walk & Talk for the Urban Tree Festival 2024: Urban Forest Accelerator (UFA) team from Birmingham Tree People, National Trust, The Woodland Trust, and Birmingham City Council; representatives from The Active Wellbeing Society, Birmingham Open Spaces Forum, City of Nature, Birmingham City University, and more!

A fantastic turnout today for the Urban Tree Festival Tree Equity Walk & Talk by Katy Hawkins, our Engagement Officer, detailing our equitable planting approach for Birmingham.

With representatives from groups and organisations all over Birmingham and beyond, people gathered to hear the small talk on the ethos of Birmingham TreePeople, and how the Urban Forest Accelerator team also from National Trust and The Woodland Trust, have helped propel last year’s planting programme using community engagement and tree equity.

After a round of introductions, David Coughlin (NT Project Manager for UFA) explained the premise of the UFA wanting to use the TreePeople as best practice example. Katy explained her community-led approach to her role in engagement, drawing attention to existing trees before continuing engagement for planting new trees: “unearthing how local people connect to trees.”

She gave us a tour of some of the equitable planting sites from last year’s programme (Bloomsbury Street, Home/Queens Towers, Vauxhall Road), particularly the ones we planted alongside Nechells POD around their local area, and how the trees are being looked after moving forwards. We even took one of the watering cans from a previous tree care event to water the trees (even though it was raining).

Beautiful poetry and prose extracts were read next to the new trees, to remind us of that beauty, and to continue to notice it around us.

We want to thank every single person for attending this seminar today; seeing members of local groups joining us is why we are doing what we are doing, and it’s all about empowering residents in their local areas to take ownership of their new trees. Thank you to Emily Cooke (NT Senior Project Coordinator for UFA) for arranging the event, and to the Urban Tree Festival. We will have some professional photos coming soon!

16/05/24

Tree People Network Day

Tree People Network Day

Urban trees are now widely recognised for the array of ecosystem services and benefits that they provide. Politically, trees have risen a long way up the agenda. They are now at the forefront of tools in the fight against climate change, loss of biodiversity, air quality, the Urban Heat Island effect, flooding etc. There is also wide recognition for tree planting, establishment, and tree care across political parties.

Urban Forestry and community groups are key players in the collective effort to protect, promote and plant trees across the UK. A dearth of coordinated, tailored support for these groups means that their potential for positive, widespread action and impact has not been realised. If that potential could be unlocked and coordinated, the protection, planting of and promotion of urban trees and green spaces could be scaled up – with local people at its heart.

Trees for Cities and Birmingham TreePeople have joined forces, to scope the idea of a new national network of Urban Forestry community groups in the UK. The purpose of the “Tree People Network” (working title) is to build community capacity, knowledge and skills to plant, protect and promote urban trees and woods.

As part of the scoping phase for this project, Birmingham Tree People and Trees for Cities have planned an initial in-person, one day consultation event in June 2024, with a selection of existing Urban Forestry community groups. The feedback and findings from this event would lay the ground for developing a national network.

If you’re a member of a community group involved in urban trees and engagement, you won’t want to miss this – the first of its kind, as UK Tree Cities meet to learn, share, and connect. Tree People Network Day is taking place at The Exchange in Birmingham on Wednesday 12th June 2024. This gives attendees a chance to connect with other urban forestry and community groups from across the country in a unique event. We have a range of panelists and speakers from various parts of the industry sharing their knowledge:

love our planet graphic
Keynote Speaker: Mark Johnston
Panelists:
Maria Adebowale-Schwarte - CEO, Foundation for Future London, and Founder, Living Space Project
Georgie Logan-Thorpe - Senior Urban Forests Manager, T4C
Tonia Clark - Principal Finance and Bids Officer, BCC, BTP
Russell Horsey MICFor, Urban Forester

Street Tree Update

Street Trees in Sparkbrook

Our urban forest volunteers have been working diligently to survey the 3,000 street trees during the funded project this year, so Meena Haynes (one of our innovative volunteers) has devised her own tool to help her in her local area: an incredibly useful 1.5m plywood measuring stick, like a giant ruler. It speeds up surveying because less time is spent figuring out length and width, for those who are not great at estimating and guessing using the regular surveying methods. This stick gives Meena a big advantage for the street tree survey!

street tree graphic

Street Trees in Hodge Hill

7th May afternoon’s surveyors in Hodge Hill consisted of Rachel, Jeremy, Genny, Ahmed and Sofia. A new surveyor was trained, and some refresher training for others. We surveyed 12 trees, a bit of TLC given to some, and rescued a few more not on the list. Several trees need reporting to Kier, meaning we still have work to do to encourage public ownership of street trees! Well done to everyone for their hard work during this incredibly important project.

Street Trees in Nechells

Not only this, but Deanne Brettle, Trustee for Tree Trails, has just begun her PhD! Dee’s first day as a PhD student was straight on the job, with the Bloomington Protocol on housing trees that we planted in Tree Week 2023; a new chapter in our citizen science project! The first 7 trees we planted are still there and looking pretty good (the planes are category A!).

Dee and Mac surveying street trees during the first day of Dee's PhD!

Heart of England Community Foundation, West Midlands Combined Authority.

Identifying Buds with EPC

Tonia Clark, Birmingham TreePeople’s current Chair, has been continuing her relationship with Eden Project Communities, by hosting another session with them identifying buds, at Birmingham Settlement Nature & Wellbeing Centre on 27th April, in Edgbaston.

Tonia ran this 3rd seminar on identifying the difference between tree buds and flowers, finding out which buds become flowers, and those that become leaves. The session was well-attended once again by many old and new tree-enthusiasts, and we are sure there will be another one very soon!

Thank you to Darren from EPC for maintaining our relationship, so we can educate new people on trees and nature, bringing communities together through the power of knowledge.

Identifying buds with Eden Project Communities

By addressing the skills gap in this field, we want to encourage newcomers to the trade, and starting at a simple seminar on identifying buds could be the beginning of your next, fascinating journey.

Earth Day at Weoley Castle 2024

Happy Earth Day!

Tonia Clark, BTP Chair, Lawrence Weston our newest Trustee, and Julianne Statham, Trustee for Treemembrance, attended the Earth Day celebrations (and Earth Month throughout April) at Weoley Castle again this year, on Saturday 20th April (for Earth Day on 22nd April).

To celebrate Earth Month and Day, many groups and activists from in and around Birmingham attended the celebration in Weoley Castle Square, to draw attention the importance of our planet, with a focus on removing plastics this year. Do you have any tips on reusing or recycling plastics in your household?

The weather was rather lovely, and was made brighter by extra helping hands belonging to Rachel, one of our urban forest volunteers! We talked to many people about what we do at BTP, encouraging people to become part of their urban forest, as well as many educational leaflets and display items. We want to thank the organisers at Weoley Castle for organising another great Earth Day celebration!

Spring Event at Martineau Gardens

Steve Watson (Trustee) is also a member of Martineau Gardens, that’s why he and Katy Hawkins, our Engagement Officer, attended their Spring festivities on the 20th April. On a bright, sunny day, hordes of people from all over Birmingham and beyond enjoyed a jamboree of events, including Morris Dancing, bands, and fete games.

The many stalls were diverse, presenting offers from well-being support to tree orientated displays from BTP. Katy provided some talks and helped arrange arts and crafts. Kids could colour in tree cookies, which proved very popular, and adults enjoy learning about tree rings, tree cones, and cerebral books.

Thank you to Martineau for providing space for us amongst the fantastic volunteer groups that attended, and for a wonderful Spring day.

Watering Cans

Watering cans arts and crafts session at the POD

We held another creative arts and crafts session at Nechells POD this Wednesday 17th, decorating watering cans to promote the aftercare and watering of the newly planted local trees.

Katy Hawkins, Engagement Officer, hosted this with a theme in mind: each of the three tables were dedicated to one of the new tree species on Bloomsbury Road, Hop Hornbeam, Sweet Gum, and American Ash. The children decorated their cans with these as prompts, using the wooden letters and acrylic pens to write their names and drawings on the white and green cans.

BTP want to encourage community ownership of trees, so once the watering cans were completed, the group set off down the road to visit the trees in question and give them some TLC. We all took turns to water the trees, explaining why we use watering bags (do you know what benefits they have?), and trying not to get caught in the water fight in the sunshine!

Thank you to Nechells POD for working with us again to create a wonderful, artistic session, bringing nature and our youth together, ensuring the lasting care of the community-planted trees around Nechells.

Now that it’s Springtime, water the trees please!

Tree Inspection

Ian McDermott took the L2 Arboriculture class out, for their final session on Tree Inspection, on Saturday 13th April. He hosted the class in Handsworth Park, where the Sons of Rest has recently received a new tribute mural to a prominent Birmingham figure, painted by Bunny Bread. The memorial was revealed the following day in a spectacular unveiling that was well-attended, by our Chair and many members of local friend groups and councillors and family and children and all alike – celebrating the life and legacy of one of Brum’s most iconic poets and dub musicians, artist and activist, roots and nature advocate, Benjamin Zephaniah.

The memorial unveiling came a day before his birthday – happy birthday Benjamin, may you rest in peace, and be remembered.

Street Tree Survey: Nechells

Nina Griffiths, BTP Trustee for Street Trees, held another survey session on Sunday 7th April. Not allowing Storm Kathleen to blow in and ruin our entire day, Nina and the other surveyors came for the morning session and surveyed the 10 trees in the area that were on the list (there were more, but a couple were absent, and another replanted, which is recorded using TreePlotter).

When the volunteers had some trouble locating certain trees (that proved to be absent), Nina stepped in to save them by demonstrating the use of TreePlotter to help the team locate the right tree that matched our list of street trees.

The surveyors – Julianne, Charley, Alex, and Jeevan – split into two teams to get the job done. Nina trained Jeevan on-the-ground, having joined us that day as a new surveyor, and on such a windy day her presence was warmly welcomed!

The group found an interesting street tree, that had had its planting hole stolen by another seed, had grown rapidly, and was thus choking the growth of the other, intended street tree.

Thank you to the volunteers and to Nina; we have 3,000 trees to survey, so please let us know if you’d like to get involved!

Nature Walk: Edgbaston Reservoir

About 20 people came along to the nature walk around Edgbaston Reservoir, with Friends of Edgbaston Reservoir, on Saturday 30th March for Easter.

Lovely sunny day, the group spotted flora, fauna and funga on the interesting north side of the Local Nature Reserve.

Nature Walk: Edgbaston Reservoir, 30/03/24

The Reservoir has a relatively recent history and is an early part of the development of this part of the city. The LNR has five distinct plantation areas including a wetland. The spring is rapidly developing, but still cunningly disguising the identity of the trees. Help was on hand from a brilliant, teenage forester who knew his stuff! The trees at the LNR are mostly traditional deciduous and provide a useful learning resource.

Thank you to everyone who came along for Steve Watson’s walk, we are already looking forward to the next!