News
Urban Trees Survey
22nd February 2008
The largest ever survey of urban trees in England has been published.
The survey shows that although national tree health has improved markedly since the last survey in 1992, with trees being maintained much more regularly by councils, there has been a decline in the number of older trees in towns and cities and overall planting rates of new trees has fallen.
Trees play a key role in reducing the impacts of climate change in urban areas and are important to residents of towns and cities. The report found that most trees make a considerable or outstanding contribution to the quality of neighbourhoods.
The survey, of nearly 150 towns across England, shows that just 11 per cent of trees in towns are between 50 and 100 years old and just two per cent are over 100 years old.
England's 'top tree' is the Leyland cypress, which is mainly used for hedges - accounting for more than 1 in 10 of all trees. These are followed by hawthorn and sycamore, more commonly seen as individual trees.
The report, written by ADAS and Myerscough College, suggests ways in which all councils can match the standards of the best:
-every local authority should have a specialist tree officer and puts in place a comprehensive tree strategy
-make greater use of sponsorship programmes in partnership with businesses, schools and local communities, with the target of raising £15,000 per town to protect local trees
-all work on protected trees is regularly monitored and enforcement action is taken where necessary
-at least 90 per cent of all newly planted local authority trees receive regular maintenance
-installing a computerised tree management system or 'log' to help the local authority to manage their tree resource and promote electronic communication.
