Street Tree Update - Birmingham TreePeople

Street Trees in Sparkbrook

Street Tree Survey: Meena measuring street trees with her plywood measuring stick.

Street Tree Survey: Meena measuring street trees with her plywood measuring stick.

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 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!

Street Trees in Nechells, 'a bit of light pruning': Sarah, Ruth, Sonja, Tanim — The street tree survey continues, as the group of surveyors tackled 20 trees in Nechells Saturday 11th May with Nina. Sarah, Tanim, and Sonja are new trainee surveyors that got stuck right in, as well as returning surveyors Ruth, Alex, and Charley. Alex and Charley split from the rest of the group and surveyed 13 trees around the area, whilst the others tackled some ‘light’ pruning along Lichfield Road with the trees on their list! We noticed that there is quite a lot of mower damage… this is a continuing problem that has caused one of the trees we found to die, and another was on its way out. Careless grass cutting causes the loss of newly planted trees more often than BTP would like, but in keeping an eye out for the damage means the data can be updated on TreePlotter, and a new tree can replace the dead one. A huge thanks to our surveyors.

The street tree survey continues, as the group of surveyors tackled 20 trees in Nechells Saturday 11th May with Nina. Sarah, Tanim, and Sonja are new trainee surveyors that got stuck right in, as well as returning surveyors Ruth, Alex, and Charley. Alex and Charley split from the rest of the group and surveyed 13 trees around the area, whilst the others tackled some ‘light’ pruning along Lichfield Road with the trees on their list! We noticed that there is quite a lot of mower damage… this is a continuing problem that has caused one of the trees we found to die, and another was on its way out. Careless grass cutting causes the loss of newly planted trees more often than BTP would like, but in keeping an eye out for the damage means the data can be updated on TreePlotter, and a new tree can replace the dead one. A huge thanks to our surveyors.

Heart of England Community Foundation, West Midlands Combined Authority.