Tree Equity means that everyone has equal access to trees.
Tree Equity has been an important factor in the decisions we’ve made for our tree strategy. Through our Urban Forest Masterplan, and the Urban Forest Accelerator programme, increasing canopy cover in our priority wards has been equity focused.
Low tree equity means that an area is lacking in trees, and an area with high tree equity has most benefits of green spaces. That’s why our priority wards targeted areas with lower canopy cover, to raise the tree equity. Woodland Trust say:
Tree equity is the idea that all communities have equitable access to the benefits of trees where they live. While some urban areas enjoy abundant greenery and tree cover, others lack these essential natural assets.
Woodland Trust
Originally assisting The Woodland Trust as consultants during the preliminary phase, Birmingham TreePeople contributed towards the launch of WT’s Tree Equity Score, by demonstrating and explaining some of the work we have already been doing in the City of Birmingham, with the Urban Forest Masterplan.
Birmingham TreePeople’s relationship with Woodland Trust has developed further, as both charities are contributing towards the Urban Forest Accelerator, where our joint focus on tree equity is a prominent feature of the project. BTP have been planting in the wards we have due to those areas having low tree equity. So, what exactly is Tree Equity, and why does it matter to us?
Tree Equity Photography, Nechells
Charlotte McDermott, BTP’s Communications Officer, along with Krish Kumar and Raghav Kumar, took the group from WT (Catherine, Amber, and Phil) to Nechells, one of our priority wards where we planted with the community last year, to capture many professional photos of good and bad tree equity, including our wonderful urban forest volunteers to be the face of the equity score campaign. Catherine interviewed our volunteers about their relationship with nature, and why they volunteered with BTP. The young men also proved to be incredibly photogenic, and Raghav showed Phil (professional photographer) some of his amateur photography skills! See them on the left in front of Home and Queens, Nechells, where we planted trees in 2023 to raise the equity.
Tree Equity Seminar with Woodland Trust
After working with The Woodland Trust previously, Birmingham TreePeople were invited to attend and present at their internal Tree Equity seminar 8th February, to display the fantastic work that was done last year for National Tree Week 2023. We gathered at Nechells POD, one of our partners for last year’s planting, in one of the very wards we went onto talk about.
Charlotte McDermott, BTP Communications Officer, and Ian McDermott, BTP Trainer and Arboriculturalist, attended the morning seminar, where Charley gave an interactive presentation about the successes and struggles of Tree Week 2023. She also planned a tree walk around Nechells, to show The Woodland Trust team some of the nearby tree planting locations. The presentation and walk both demonstrated the on-the-ground tree equity work that has driven the focus of our planting season. See our blog, reel below, to read about our planting seasons, and other activities, pushing this work forward.
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.
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.
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 at BTP.
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 2025!
Urban Tree Festival: Tree Equity Walk & Talk
We had a fantastic turnout 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 the 2023 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.
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.
