Category: street trees

Help shape Bristol’s Tree Strategy Action Plan – join the iTree Bristol tree survey

Come along and find out about the iTree Project training day between 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. at Ashton Court next Sunday 13th May.

iTree Bristol is a new project providing a great opportunity to be personally involved in a campaign to care for the Bristol’s existing trees and woodlands and to plant many more of them all over the city.

The plan is to survey around 200 randomly selected plots across the city. In this way we will have a better understanding of the structure of the city’s urban forest and the many benefits it brings us – reducing air pollution, capturing carbon, reducing rainfall runoff.

Internationally recognised, i-Tree Eco is being used by cities and towns across the UK to help inform their tree strategies. The results of our iTree Bristol survey will inform the forthcoming plans for our Tree Strategy Action Plan, setting out our goals and priorities for increasing our tree canopy cover and developing and funding our urban forest and its trees into the future.

iTree Bristol needs volunteers to help run the survey. You don’t need to be an expert. All you need is an interest in trees and have time to help with a small number of surveys over this summer when our trees are in full leaf and at their best. Forest of Avon Trust will provide training and support.

Come and join in

If you would like to join in, please complete the form below and email it to Forest of Avon Trust to register your interest. They will be in touch with more information about the event.

Complete the iTree Bristol Volunteer Contact form to volunteer!

iTree Bristol  is supported by the Forest of Avon Trust working with Bristol City Council, the Woodland Trust and Bristol Tree Forum. This core group will also be working with organisations and individuals across the city to produce Bristol’s Tree Strategy Action Plan.

As plans develop, more information will be provided through the our web sites and Twitter accounts –  and .

And don’t forget to sign the Tree Charter…

 

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Towards a Bristol Tree Strategy

Representatives of the Woodland Trust, The Bristol Tree Forum, The Forest of Avon Trust and Bristol City Council met last Thursday 1 March to start the process of developing a Tree Strategy for Bristol.  This is the first tentative step in a process which will include consultation and involvement of all those groups and individuals who have an interest in Bristol’s trees.

The process of developing a strategy will need a lot of thought: Bristol has woodland trees, park trees, trees on private land, street trees and trees on corporate land (including university trees).  In each case, the costs and benefits and what we would like to achieve are different, as are those we would want to involve.  The idea is to start a “conversation” which would include an online platform, a number of exploratory meetings with key partners and then, in June, a public meeting which would be convened by the Woodland Trust, the Bristol Tree Forum and the Forest of Avon Trust in collaboration with Bristol City Council.

Without pre-judging what might be in a tree strategy, these are some of the considerations:

Bristol already has a lot of good practice in place, both at a policy level and through individual case studies.  The idea would be to collate all this together with a clear approach to improve the management of existing trees, the planting of new trees and to increase community engagement in tree management.  Inevitably we will need to bring funding to Bristol to meet these goals and a good tree strategy will help with this.

The initial discussion was very positive – it is something we have talked about for some time and I am really pleased that there is now the momentum to carry it forward.

Vassili Papastavrou,

Vice-chair Bristol Tree Forum

The Oakenhill Apple

In a quiet street in Brislington East there used to stand an apple tree, planted, the residents think, at about the same time that the street was developed, sometime in the 1930s.

It was an unusual, red-fleshed variety with very deep pink blossom and red inner flesh when a stem or its fruit was cut. It gave delight to all who passed by it, shelter to local wildlife and provided fruit to anyone who chose to take them, for they made quite good eaters and were delicious when cooked well. The birds also enjoyed them as autumn turned to winter.

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The passage of the years had exaggerated its natural lean and caused it to become dangerous so, sadly, it had to come down.

However, before it was felled, a resident took cuttings for budding and sent them to two nurseries and an amateur gardener. This winter these produced eight new trees on MM106 rootstocks, for which homes have been found across the country. Three have been returned to the street and planted in front and back gardens nearby and one has been planted in Horfield. There are now also specimens to be found in Hawksbury Upton, Wootton-under-Edge and in Wales.

The last one is going to a red-fleshed apple expert in Leicestershire in the hope that they will be able to identify the variety.

So, what to replace it with?

The location, on a north-facing pavement, is just five metres from nearby houses (so neighbours are particularly concerned not to lose too much light), requires a tree which is small, light canopied, preferably has both blossom and fruit and definitely has value for insects and birds.

The street supports a rare swift colony and there are breeding starlings and sparrows using the nearby house eaves to nest and raise their young. The residents are keen to support all these declining species, especially the swifts which have a very high demand for insect food.

The majority of trees in the neighbourhood are small to medium sized, blossoming and bearing either berries or fruits – typical of a 1930s housing estate. These trees bring a lot of pleasure to all and support bio-diversity.

What do you think would suite this location? Please let us know.

Get your tree replacement orders in now!

If you would like to get a tree planted on a street near you this winter, you will need to make sure that you have submitted your sponsorship request well before the end of this December.

To do this, go to the Council’s TreeBristol: Sponsor or adopt a tree page and follow the guidance. You can find more information on our own Sponsor or adopt a Bristol tree page.

If the tree site you want to sponsor is not shown on the Council’s map, then send an email to Simon Cuthill, Business Support Assistant at treebristol@bristol.gov.uk identifying the site you have in mind and ask for it to be included.

Good luck & let’s get planting!

 

Bristol Trees Trust meeting – 2 August 2017 minutes

Cost of planting replacement trees will remain at £295. Only trees planted in new sites will be charged at £765.

Bristol City Council is looking for new ways to fund street tree maintenance – both short and long-term.

Attendance Bristol City Council:

Cllr Charlie Bolton, Cllr Asher Craig (Chair), Gemma Dando, Richard Ennion, Peter Mann, Shaun Taylor.

Attendance External:

Avon Wildlife Trust:  Eric Heath

Bristol Tree Forum: Mark Ashdown, Stephanie French, Peter Harnett, Vassili Papastavrou (minutes) and John Tarlton

Forest of Avon Trust: Jon Clark

BCR Streetscene Group: Rob Umphray

University of Bristol: John Tarlton

University of Birmingham Chris Bouch

Woodland Trust: Catherine Brabner-Evans and Ross Kennerley

Apologies:  Councillors Anthony Negus, Clive Stevens and Gill Kirk; Richard Fletcher; Liz Kew.

Councillor Craig welcomed the participants and summarised the present financial situation within Bristol City Council, which is being forced to make substantial cuts to its services.  In response to a question as to whether there is an acceptance that the cut in the street tree maintenance budget will result in fellings in 3-5 years, Councillor Craig agreed that there would be knock on effects.   The purpose of the meeting was to work together to find a solution to the problem and mitigate the impact.  The cuts in budgets across the council would have consequences.

It was decided that the group would focus on street trees but also consider the context of Bristol’s other publicly owned trees (in parks and on estates).  Notes to be circulated to attendees and further meeting to be held in mid-September.

Alternative models of supporting trees in cities – trust models including sponsorship, civic ownership

It was acknowledged that existing examples are for planting trees rather than maintenance.  A number of participants expressed the view that it was extremely hard to obtain money for maintenance, despite the well-known value of the urban trees and the various benefits (e.g. health and well-being, water retention, cooling effect) that they provide.  One idea was to use sponsorship plaques which would indicate that the maintenance of a particular tree was sponsored.

Tree maintenance concerns, epicormic growth and local community involvement

The implications of the cut in tree maintenance from £240,000 to £53,000 (£187,000 cut) was discussed.  Pollarding cannot be done by members of the public.  Rob Umphray provided details of epicormic growth removal that has already been undertaken by the Community Payback Scheme along the Gloucester Road.  It turns out that the insurers would not accept the risk of getting members of the public to work on highways, in particular, stepping out into the road and working on busy pavements.  However, very quiet residential roads may be a different matter. This means that in general the removal of epicormics growth will also have to be done by professional contractors.

It was agreed that street tree maintenance is a core council service which cannot be done by volunteers.

Action: Shaun Taylor to consider a flexible approach to allow communities to undertake certain works to highway trees where risk was considered lower and training / guidance could be provided to mitigate risk further.

 Councillor Craig suggested two possible immediate and short term solutions for the shortfall in funding for street tree maintenance.  The first was to use some of the money that remains within the “One Tree Per Child” budget, whilst maintaining that project at a slower pace.  The second solution is to access some of the approximately £4 million CIL funding (sum equivalent to a 15% allocation of total CIL receipts).

Action: Councillor Craig offered to come back to the next meeting in September with the outcome of her discussions re “One Tree Per Child”, including taking into account the partnership approach to delivering this project and using CIL funding (both the 15% that is currently determined locally and the remaining 85% that is currently retained wholly by the Council).  (N.B These are just proposals to be explored and brought back to next meeting)

Tree planting initiatives and the future of woodland creation

There was a discussion regarding the present sponsorship scheme for street trees where trees to replace stumps or in existing tree pits cost £295 and street trees on new sites cost £765 (plus the cost of an engineered tree pit if needed).  The scheme was seen as extremely successful and Richard Ennion was congratulated for getting it underway.  It was felt that a dramatic increase in costs would result in sponsorship drying up and may result in existing sponsors (such as the University of Bristol) withdrawing. It was also acknowledged that delaying planting in existing sites may ultimately result in much greater expense as a vacant site only remains “current” for a period of about 5 years.  Richard Ennion also confirmed that £295 was a true and genuine reflection of the actual cost of planting a tree in an existing site.   It was decided to maintain these sponsorship costs at the existing level and not implement the proposal to increase all tree costs to £765. This will require further “internal” discussion at BCC.

 “One tree per child” was discussed and the educational value of the project was stressed with good feedback from the schools involved.

The representative from the Woodland Trust suggested that it might be a mistake to separate street trees from the wider context.

Action: In terms of a way forward it was agreed to look into new funding sources and the possibility of setting up a Trust for the future.  It was felt that it is possible to raise funding for tree planting and this would be pursued.

 It was also agreed to start the process of preparing a Tree Strategy for Bristol

Future for trees in parks

Discussions regarding Bristol’s parks are ongoing and the Newcastle initiative of creating a Mutual Parks Trust is being explored, as well as Newcastle’s success in obtaining £1 million public health funding.  A visit to Newcastle is planned.

Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Group would be mid-September when Councillor Craig should be able to provide further information regarding the short term/immediate funding of street tree maintenance.

Vassili Papastavrou

12 August 2017

Please contribute to the Sheffield Tree Action Group Legal fund

The Sheffield Tree Action Group or STAG is urgently fundraising to support the legal fees of eight of its members.

The fund has reached nearly £21,000 (as of 23 July 2017) but it is likely that the legal costs will be double that for the three day hearing that starts on 26th July.

They have been taken to the High Court by Sheffield City Council in order to intimidate them and other protesters.  Sheffield City Council is hoping  that the court will issue injunctions against the protesters, claim huge damages and prevent them and others from opposing the felling of trees in future. One Councillor is amongst the eight.

Graham Turnbull from STAG spoke at our 4 July Bristol Tree Forum meeting.  The situation in Sheffield is shocking, with whole avenues of street trees being removed as part of a PFI agreement with Amey to manage Sheffield’s streets for 25 years.  Quite simply, it is cheaper to remove most of the street trees and replace them with small saplings than to maintain the existing stock of trees.  There have been 5 am dawn raids and arrests under obscure anti-trade union laws – although the Crown Prosecution Service dropped all charges against protesters. Now the council has decided to invoke civil law where the standard of proof is lower.

The problems Sheffield residents are facing are not unique. The outcome of their protests will determine whether other councils decide to embark on wholesale felling as a way of cutting costs. From a wider perspective, their council is seeking to outlaw peaceful protest. We should all help for those very reasons.

Bristol Trees in Crisis – Conservatives’ Press release

Conservative Councillor, John Goulandris, is challenging the controversial decision to slash the Authority’s annual funding for street tree maintenance.

Earlier this year, news broke that Council spending on the upkeep of roadside trees was being cut drastically by £187k (from £240k to £53k) as part of wider savings planned for the highways budgets.

Critics have argued that this draconian measure was brought in without proper consultation and without taking  any advice from professionals like the Council’s own in-housearboriculturalists and important advisory local bodies such as the Bristol Tree Forum.

Furthermore, they suggest that this apparent cost saving measure could well prove to be counter-productive in the long term, as poorly maintained trees represent a risk to public safety and may result in an increase in compensation claims for personal injury or damage to property. Short term savings are likely to be more than offset by higher future maintenance costs.

Now, Cllrs  Goulandris and Weston have tabled questions on this issue to the Mayor (and a formal resolution) for the next Members’ Forum and Full Council, to be held on Tuesday, 18th July.

Cllr Goulandris (Stoke Bishop) said:

“The level of public concern over this appalling decision is quite extraordinary.

Equally shocking has been the total lack of transparency in arriving at this saving. Specific details of the proposal – passed by the Mayor’s Labour colleagues in February – appear to have been hidden under a very broad heading of planned reductions in the Highways maintenance budget.

The lack of consultation over the efficacy of this move is also extremely worrying. Not consulting even the Council’s in house tree experts beggars belief and casts serious doubt on the credibility of the proposed savings.

Many residents have approached us to say that, if the Highways Department has to make savings, this should come from cutting back on expensive, over-engineered traffic schemes and installations rather than the essential upkeep of our street trees.

Slashing funding on tree management sends out a strange, contradictory message from this Administration, especially when Bristol only recently handed over its mantle of European Green Capital.

Therefore, we intend to urge the Mayor to rethink this daft idea and reinstate the funding, until a proper analysis of this proposal has been undertaken and a sensible new street tree policy adopted.”

Questions from Councillor John Goulandris:

Street Tree Budget 

Q1.         At a meeting of the Bristol Tree Forum on 4th July, held at City Hall, senior highways officers admitted that they had not consulted the Council’s in-house arboriculturalists, when setting the budget for street tree maintenance. They also admitted that they had no expertise in tree management or tree maintenance budgeting.  Is the Mayor comfortable that this approach to setting the reduced street tree budget is reasonable, rational and prudent?

Q2.         Tree professionals have opined that, if street trees are not subject to regular maintenance e.g. pollarding, this short term approach stores up costly problems for the future.

Is the Mayor fully satisfied that the short term savings identified by reducing the street tree budget will not be more than offset by rising costs in future years?

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Questions from Councillor Mark Weston

Street Trees and the environment

Q1.         Mature trees absorb a huge amount of CO2 and mature street trees in particular help to combat air pollution in our cities.  Does the Mayor agree that Bristol’s street trees play an important role in improving our environment and helping air quality?

Q2.         If mature street trees are not maintained responsibly, their uncontrolled growth can cause problems, given their proximity to houses and the highway. As a result of the reduction in the street tree budget, a ‘simple’ solution to future street tree management may be the felling of mature street trees as has happened in Sheffield. This has a devastating impact on both the street scene and air pollution.  It would also send out a very curious, contradictory environmental message from a recent European Green Capital City. Will the Mayor give his commitment not to fell Bristol’s street trees?

Motion to be moved by Councillor John Goulandris

SAVING BRISTOL’S STREET TREES

“Council is extremely concerned about the hasty decision by Highways drastically to reduce – by 78% – departmental spending on the Street Tree Management Programme.

This move is said to be part of wider savings to be achieved within the highways maintenance budget. However, there seems to have been no prior consultation either within the Council with tree officers or externally with residents and other stakeholders. It would appear that no proper consideration has been given to the efficacy of such action or whether such savings are sustainable.  For example, the relevant line in the Mayor’s budget last February simple states ‘reduce revenue funding by £1.7m’.  This clearly does not articulate sufficiently how such a saving proposal was to be made or the likely impact it could have on the city’s treescape.

Council seriously questions the wisdom of such a sudden and massive spending cut on essential tree maintenance, which raises issues over public safety, increased pollution, damage to roads, pavements and property, as well as leading to a potential rise in compensatory insurance claims and payments. Short term savings in year 1 could well be outweighed by long term costs in future years.

Savings do, of course, have to be found by Bristol City Council. At a recent public meeting to discuss future street tree maintenance, residents stated that they would much prefer available money being redirected from over engineered traffic management/highways projects e.g.  unnecessary traffic light installations and instead put towards helping to maintain our tree canopy, which is environmentally invaluable in helping to absorb CO2 and maintain air quality.

Accordingly, Council calls on the Mayor to reinstate street tree maintenance funding, until such time as a proper evaluation of the implications of this cut has been undertaken and a new street tree policy – formulated with the help of experienced bodies like the Bristol Tree Forum and the Council’s in house tree officers – is adopted.”