November 6 2018 The question of whether a local authority landowner was negligent in setting the frequency of its inspection of trees was considered by the Court of Appeal in the recent judgment in Witley Parish Council v Cavanagh (2018), the tree in question having blown down in a storm, crushing a bus driven by the...
Read more »Moments with Trees is a two-year Heritage Lottery Funded project initiated by Nene Park Trust with four aims in mind: To enhance public knowledge and understanding of Nene Park’s trees, to encourage children’s connection with them, to conserve the natural heritage and tree stock, and to reveal their past, celebrate their present and shape their future....
Read more »Monday 18th June 2018- by Sarah Cosgrove Green-space professionals have called for the Scottish Parliament to take a deeper, broader and longer look at the issue of funding and access to quality green spaces at a one-off evidence session held at Holyrood last month (May). Green-space groups submitted written evidence and research on the benefits of...
Read more »Monday 6th November 2017- By Gavin McEwan Diseased elms from Brighton’s Preston Park are being made into planks which will be used to clad a new kiosk in the city’s Stanmer Park that will house cycle hire, an information centre and toilets. Last week, students from nearby Plumpton College set up a portable milling machine in...
Read more »Friday 13th September 2017- By Gavin McEwan Careful consideration should be given to both site preparation and species selection before planting trees, according to environment and horticultural consultant Peter Thurman. “Compaction kills trees, and is difficult to sort out,” he warned during a seminar at Barcham Trees on 5 October. “Impervious surfaces are not conducive to...
Read more »Thursday 21st September 2017- By Gavin McEwan This week’s Arboricultural Association amenity conference gave delegates a range of perspectives and advice on how to minimise the seemingly relentless spread of exotic tree pests and diseases. “Experts are needed to spot problems before they become catastrophes,” Forestry Commission chairman Sir Harry Studhome said in his keynote address....
Read more »Tuesday 5th September 2017- By Gavin McEwan The timing of trees’ budburst is significantly related to average temperature in March, a new citizen science-based study has found. The collaborative study between the Met Office and Woodland Trust recorded budburst times for 11 familiar UK tree species, and forms a supplement to the Met Office’s State of...
Read more »21st August 2017- By Sally Drury Choosing the right plant, correct planting procedure and best aftercare are the three basic rules for successful tree planting, Sally Drury explains. Arbor Day. In China it falls on 12 March, Pakistan on 18 August, New Zealand on 5 June and the Czech Republic on 20 October. In Brazil it’s...
Read more »11 August 2017 By Matthew Appleby The Mayor’s draft environment strategy will influence the rest of the country as London Mayor Sadiq Khan aims for more than half of London’s area to be green and for tree canopy cover to increase by 10% by 2050.as a 14-week consultation starts. Deputy Mayor of Environment Shirley Rodrigues...
Read more »11th August 2017 – BY Dale Haslam Judges have heaped praise on the staff and volunteers who maintain Aberdeen’s parks, while voicing their frustration at the lack of funds available for their upkeep. Earlier this year, a panel from the environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful inspected Johnston Gardens, Hazlehead Park, Duthie Park and Seaton Park. The...
Read more »We are now very much into summer, and with the ‘staycation’ holiday choice on the rise in the UK, we look at the best National Parks the UK has to offer. With miles and miles of mountains, moorland, lakes, coastlines and impressive scenery, the UK is home to some fantastic National Parks for the whole...
Read more »7th August 2017 Six of Oxford’s sites join a record number of parks and green spaces have collected the Green Flag. Blackbird Leys Park, Bury Knowle Park, Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park, Florence Park, Hinksey Park, and St Sepulchre’s Cemetery in Oxford have been recognised by the Green Flag Award Scheme as some of the very...
Read more »7th August 2017 -By Gavin McEwan The need to plant more trees in both urban and rural areas is now widely accepted across the political spectrum. But a recent meeting with parliamentarians organised by the Arboricultural Association allowed the industry to forcefully put a point that is less acknowledged in policy circles: that planting trees in towns...
Read more »2nd August 2017- By Gavin McEwan A new report prepared for the Welsh Assembly calls for “urgent” action on both amenity trees and commercial forestry. Launched at the Royal Welsh Show, the Welsh Assembly’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee’s Branching out: a new ambition for woodland policies calls for: The Welsh Government to commit to...
Read more »2nd August 2017 National parks facing huge cuts in government funding Government funding for England’s much-loved national parks is on track to fall by two-fifths by the end of the decade, new analysis shows. Sharp cuts to the annual grants for most of the protected landscapes under the coalition were followed by a pledge by...
Read more »20th July 2017, by Gavin McEwan A £13 million fund to help landowners in England plant more trees to protect wildlife, boost the timber sector and reduce flood risk will open at the end of the year for applications, forestry minister Thérèse Coffey has confirmed. Farmers, foresters and land managers across the UK will be...
Read more »13th July 2017- By WBWire Nottingham is celebrating Love Parks Week (14-23 July) by highlighting the city’s fantastic green spaces. A Sunday Times article (9/7/17) revealed that 15.3% of Nottingham is covered in accessible green space – making it the second greenest city in Britain. Birmingham came top in the report produced by the Ordnance...
Read more »13 July 2017, by Gavin McEwan Leicester City Council will shortly begin removing or cutting back many overgrown trees and shrubs in the grounds of the city’s largest entertainment venue, to bring the landscape closer to its early 20th century design. The three-hectare grounds of De Montfort Hall by the city’s Victoria Park were laid...
Read more »10th July 2017- By Laura Sharman Plans to transfer the responsibility of parks and green spaces to a charitable trust in Newcastle would save the council £110m over a 125-year lease agreement. A new report into the proposal has revealed that the trust would need £9.7m to help maintain the parks for ten years until...
Read more »11 July 2017, by Gavin McEwan, Bristol City Council will no longer pay for pollarding of its mature street trees, but a former contractor in the city says the move is simply storing up trouble. At a Bristol Tree Forum meeting last week, the city’s deputy mayor for communities Councillor Asher Craig announced that due...
Read more »4th July 2017 The City of London Corporation and the Ancient Tree Forum (ATF) will sign a joint declaration to promote the conservation of ancient trees at the ATF summer conference next week. The forest, which the City of London Corporation manages, is home to 55,000 ancient trees, more than any other single site in...
Read more »29th June 2017 At a time where many local councils are dealing with service cuts, the London Borough of Islington’s tree service has developed a model that has enabled it to make the required savings while increasing the size of its team and continuing to provide a high-level service to its residents. This success has...
Read more »23 June 2017, by Gavin McEwan, Horticulture Week The London Tree Officers Association (LTOA) has published a new best-practice guidance document for anyone involved in selecting surface materials for use around trees. Developed by an LTOA working party with input from tree specialists, project managers and highway engineers, Surface materials around trees in hard landscapes...
Read more » 1 June 2017, by Gavin McEwan, A new partnership between the Woodland Trust and the Gardens Trust will give the Woodland Trust more notice of threats to veteran trees in registered historic parks and gardens, as the Gardens Trust is a statutory consultee on developments which affect these. The Gardens Trust will provide the...
Read more » 26 May 2017, by Gavin McEwan, London Tree Week begins tomorrow (Saturday 27 May) with over 60 tree-themed events planned around the capital. These include talks, guided walks and tours in streets, parks and woodlands. There’ll also be mindfulness, poetry, art and photography “walkshops”, children’s activities plus exhibitions at City Hall and Thames Chase Forest...
Read more » 26 May 2017, by Gavin McEwan Intervention by Bristol Tree Forum leads to review of council decision on cutbacks. An intervention by a group of urban tree advocates to avert a drastic cut in Bristol’s highway tree maintenance budget shows the influence such groups can have and suggests tree managers would do well to...
Read more » 25 May 2017, by Gavin McEwan, An avenue of threatened First World War memorial trees has come first in the Great Trees of Sheffield competition, organised to highlight the value of the city’s threatened trees.The results were announced and prizes awarded during the Econet wood pastures conference at Sheffield Hallam University today (25 May). The...
Read more »22nd September 2016 – COLCHESTER Council has been called on to plant a tree for every baby born in the borough. Shaun Boughton, Wivenhoe town councillor, said it would be a nice memento for parents and would fit in with the council’s green policies. About 3,000 babies are born here every year and the council already...
Read more »13th September 2016 – One expert says they do have feelings When I began my career as a forester in western Germany’s Eifel mountains, I knew as much about the hidden life of trees as a butcher knows about the emotional life of animals. The forestry industry produces lumber; it fells trees and then plants...
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