Urban Tree Festival: Tree Equity Walk and Talk, 16th May 2024, Urban Forest Accelerator project

Treevents

Tuesday 18th
March2025
Street Tree SurveyThis information is directed to our urban forest volunteer street tree surveyors – please sign up before you attend any sessions.

Can all surveyors please bring their allocated equipment, wear appropriate clothing, and set out early due to parking in certain wards.

We would appreciate as many surveyors as possible to help out in March, as our target is 351 trees.
14:00 – 16:30North Edgbaston
Saturday 22nd
March2025
Street Tree SurveyThis information is directed to our urban forest volunteer street tree surveyors – please sign up before you attend any sessions.

Can all surveyors please bring their allocated equipment, wear appropriate clothing, and set out early due to parking in certain wards.

We would appreciate as many surveyors as possible to help out in March, as our target is 351 trees.
10:00 – 12:30Erdington
Sunday 23rd
March2025
Street Tree SurveyThis information is directed to our urban forest volunteer street tree surveyors – please sign up before you attend any sessions.

Can all surveyors please bring their allocated equipment, wear appropriate clothing, and set out early due to parking in certain wards.

We would appreciate as many surveyors as possible to help out in March, as our target is 351 trees.
10:00 – 12:30Kingstanding
Sunday 23rd
March2025
Street Tree SurveyThis information is directed to our urban forest volunteer street tree surveyors – please sign up before you attend any sessions.

Can all surveyors please bring their allocated equipment, wear appropriate clothing, and set out early due to parking in certain wards.

We would appreciate as many surveyors as possible to help out in March, as our target is 351 trees.
14:00 – 16:30Erdington
TBA
TBA2025
Alum Rock Tree PlantingWe will be planting trees in Alum Rock! Details TBA soon.
TBATBA
TBA
TBA2025
Nechells Tree PlantingWe will be planting trees in Nechells! Details TBA soon.
TBATBA
Saturday 19th
April2025
The Zephaniah Poetree Trail LaunchThe Zephaniah Forest tree planting is complete! In an ultimate ceremony in memory of Benjamin Zephaniah, the winning poets of Trees Please, Poetry Please? will adorn the 65 trees with the 65 poems to create a physical Zephaniah Poetree Trail, as well as the poems being documented online using TreePlotter.

We will meet at the first Farm Street entrance, and begin from the first tree that was planted by Qian Zephaniah, through to the final 65th tree planted by his family, friends, community, and poets. Benjamin and his family lived on Farm Street when he was a child, so we will be able to retrace steps that he has taken many years before…

The poems will be laminated and tied to the trees, so this temporary, non-invasive method of display doesn’t disturb or damage the trees. Therefore, we hope the wonderful poets will return to replace their poems when they are worn. Alongside the Burbury Park Community Forum and Birmingham Empowerment Forum caring for the orchard, we want to encourage the community and those involved with this project to come back, ensuring the trees are healthy, and the forest is thriving for Benjamin.

This project has been crowdfunded through Spacehive, sponsored by Trees for Cities, Veolia, Birmingham City Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund with West Midlands Combined Authority and the UK Government, and is in partnership with the Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group. We wholeheartedly thank every group and individual that has contributed to Benjamin’s legacy mini forest in Newtown (a full list of sponsors will also be available on our website soon); through your donations, time, and support, Benjamin’s legacy will last another 65 years, and another, and another.
See The Zephaniah Forest Poetree Trail on TreePlotter here (work-in-progress).
12:00 – 15:00Burbury Park, Newtown
TreePeople city

This Blog Reel includes Posts about our Treevents:

Grafting Workshop
Lawrence Weston, Trustee in charge of the new Orchard Programme, has recently run five incredible grafting workshops in South Birmingham, after launching the project. We were joined by Minworth Action Projects at the Minworth workshops, who we recently planted a new orchard with, and continuing that work, these grafting sessions are designed to give local volunteers the knowledge they need to look after the community's trees. Some happy grafters at Glebe Farm Library! We ran …
The Final Zephaniah Forest Planting
The Zephaniah Forest has been completed in a final planting session. In Burbury Park, Newtown, there are now 65 new trees signifying each year of a life well-lived and respected, dedicated to Benjamin Zephaniah. In a final celebratory planting session, the legacy forest dedicated to Benjamin was completed by returning community members and volunteers from previous sessions, a myriad of winning poets from the Trees Please, Poetry Please? competition, Cabinet Member for the Environment Councillor …
Refugee & Migrant Centre Zephaniah Tree Planting
We were joined by friends from the Refugee and Migrant Centre, on 6th February 2025, to help plant nine more trees in The Zephaniah Forest. Together we spent the morning digging holes and carefully unwrapping the trees, ready for their new home in Burbury Park. Millicent Springer, sister of Benjamin and member of the Benjamin Zephaniah Family Legacy Group, also joined this wonderful planting session in her brother's honour. We planted a mix of species, …
Go Green Week with BCU
We teamed up with Birmingham City University students for Go Green Week on Friday 30th January. The keen squad joined Matt and Charley – with support from Birmingham City Council Woodlands Team's Leon and Nick – to fulfill some of our targets towards the Urban Forest Masterplan for Birmingham. We had a wonderful few hours of tree planting with BCU Volunteering Team! The new trees have been planted in Newtown, targeting low canopy areas of …