Urban tree planting & street trees
Urban trees in St Peter’s Square, Manchester
Urban trees - either in small groups or as solitary trees along streets - play a significant role in adapting cities to climate change.
The canopy of mature trees reduce the urban heat island effect by providing shading and evapo-transpiration.
Trees also intercept rainwater that would otherwise find its way into rivers and water courses, reducing flood risk.
Urban tree planting also provides a wide range of economic, social, and environmental co-benefits. These include contributing to climate mitigation by removing and storing carbon from the atmosphere, reducing pollution by intercepting particulates, and improving biodiversity by providing habitats for wildlife. Urban and street trees can also provide a broader public amenity by improving an area’s aesthetic appeal. This can provide wider benefits, for instance by encouraging active forms of transport such as walking and cycling.
We need more trees. But we must make sure we’re planting the right trees in the right place and ensure that the new trees we plant will thrive in our future climate. Simultaneously, we need to preserve and enhance the urban trees that we already have.
Benefits of trees for stormwater runoff
These diagrams shows the processes that allow trees to provide stormwater runoff benefits.
Soils can store runoff from impermeable surfaces such as street pavements. Water can be directed into soil under a suspended pavement.
Interception by the tree leaves and stem surfaces causes more evapotranspiration; the sum of water evaporated from the soil and plants surfaces and the water lost as a result of transpiration).
In short, less rainwater ends up on impermeable street surfaces.
Images reproduced with permission from DeepRoot UK
Challenges for tree planting
There are challenges to planting urban trees. In particular, street trees need expert maintenance, particularly in early years while they become established. For example, tree guards for young trees must be carefully installed and require regular irrigation to keep them healthy. Mature trees can disturb pavements, causing hazards for pedestrians and cyclists and users of wheelchairs and pushchairs.
Some councils see street trees as costly, hazardous burdens. In 2017, figures revealed that street trees were being felled at a rate of nearly 60 a day.
City of Trees
In 2018, City of Trees undertook one of the largest physical surveys of trees in the UK to better understand the extent, make up, function, and value of Greater Manchester’s urban forest.
The results of the survey, research on where we need more trees, and actions for communities, businesses and others across the city to promote, protect and enhance urban trees, is available in the report All our trees: Greater Manchester’s tree and woodland strategy.
City of Trees has also developed a guide to protect and preserve local trees and woodland and to recognise and celebrate heritage trees.
Tree planting for urban cooling, City of Trees
Mini Urban Forests
Mini urban woodlands can vary in scale but generally require a land area the size of a tennis court, which can accommodate around 600 densely planted trees.
The most successful projects involve engagement with local volunteers and stakeholders to support with initial planning, planting, monitoring and general stewardship. In doing so, the projects can deliver multiple social, physical and mental health benefits for communities. In some cases they could provide an outdoor classroom and learning environment for local schools and nurseries, helping to trigger a lifelong passion for nature in young people. They can also become a catalyst for community regeneration, turning disused or abandoned sites into assets for urban communities.
Mini urban forests should be designed and planted in collaboration with local communities. They can quite literally become a ‘living lab’, with data gathered by citizen scientists and volunteers used to improve our collective understanding of urban greening initiatives.
Challenges and overcoming them
Delivering a forest of this type requires the identification of an appropriate urban space and an owner willing to set aside land for planting. This is often the most difficult dimension of any project. But like any urban greening project, there are other barriers.
Concerns about safety: there may be fears around the forests being used for anti-social behaviour. However, ensuring positive community engagement early on can alleviate such fears, decrease the likelihood of negative connotations and gain community buy-in.
Concerns about maintenance, from a woodland management and littering perspective. Strong community engagement can alleviate concerns by highlighting the often low-maintenance methodologies that are followed in planting schemes and by recruiting local volunteers to assist with maintenance and upkeep.
Lack of long-term buy-in from private landowners. Given the scarcity and cost of land in cities, the long-term contract needed to host an urban forest can raise concerns. However, highlighting the multitude of benefits to the local community and area and engaging them on its design and use can help ensure landowner buy-in.
Other ways to ensure success with small urban forest schemes include:
Securing buy-in from senior decision makers and landowners as soon as possible to make progress easier and faster.
Establishing a senior champion that will build the case with stakeholders and partners.
Develop a clear and inclusive engagement strategy with local residents, providing multiple opportunities for people to have a say in the design of their forest e.g. including local art projects, places to sit and relax, facilities making it more accessible, etc.
Designing accessible signage, site interpretations and education opportunities to showcase the benefits of the forest and to help challenge preconceptions.
Creating and sharing a long-term maintenance plan with clear roles and responsibilities for both landowners and volunteers.
Selling the concept by highlighting the benefits of the forest in three areas:
Environmental - has a positive impact on carbon storage, biodiversity, air pollution, canopy cover, urban cooling etc.
Educational - highlight the benefits of ‘planting a classroom’, of using the forest as a biodiversity case study, and of monitoring its growth and impact.
Mental health and well-being – showcase its potential impact on community cohesion, resilience, isolation, and the many health benefits it can bring as a space for residents to connect with nature.
Please visit the Groundwork UK website about how to create a mini forest in your community.
Earthwatch’s Tiny Forest programme
Environmental charity and citizen science specialists Earthwatch Europe have run the Tiny Forest project since 2019, planting the first Tiny Forest in 2020. Their Tiny Forest initiative has pioneered small scale urban forests in the UK.
Earthwatch work with local partners, from businesses to local councils, to deliver Tiny Forests to a range of urban sites. The charity has recently partnered with Fever-Tree and Hammersmith and Fulham Council to bring a Tiny Forest to local residents, making it London’s first Tiny Forest.
Tiny Forest sites require a list of criteria to be met. This ranges from site size (approximately 200m2) to ensuring that no underground or overhead infrastructure is present. Please contact Earthwatch to receive the full criteria list.
Generally, Tiny Forests require limited management and maintenance after the first two years as the trees become established, making them great choices for local authorities and councils.
For more information on Tiny Forests, please visit earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/tiny-forest
Research & networking
Greening Greater Manchester Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/greeningmanchester/about
Royal Horticultural Society Greening Great Britain campaign: www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/greening-great-britain
Forest Research: Information about street trees on the Forest Research website
Several organisations work with communities in Manchester to plant urban trees.
Tree Action Mcr is Manchester City Council’s £1million, two-year project to plant trees throughout the city. The first phase will focus on city wards which have historically had fewer street trees and less overall tree cover. These include Ancoats and Beswick, Ardwick, Cheetham, Clayton and Openshaw, Gorton and Abbey Hey, Miles Platting and Newton Heath, Moss Side, Old Moat, Withington and Woodhouse Park.
Groundwork Greater Manchester work to “create a greener, more resilient city region with stronger, healthier communities, responsible businesses and enhanced prospects for all local people.” Groundwork have co-ordinated projects on street-tree planting such as the Eco-Street at the Manchester flower show. This included a guided tree walk through the city centre in partnership with City of Trees. Groundwork also provide support and guidance for communities hoping to introduce new trees into local neighbourhoods.
Further information on Groundwork GM is available here:
www.groundwork.org.uk/hubs/greatermanchester/groundworks-eco-street-at-manchester-flower-show/
www.groundwork.org.uk/hubs/greatermanchester/how-to-create-a-mini-forest-in-your-community/
The Green Streets initiative – This Mersey Forest initiative is a joint Red Rose Forest and Community Forest North West project and involves urban greening projects in Manchester, Trafford, and Salford. The programme is designed to educate people on the health benefits of planting trees and to provide trees in inner-city areas to adapt to and mitigate climate change and to improve quality of life.
City of Trees is dedicated to delivering a green recovery and tackling the climate emergency head-on, through planting trees and restoring woodlands for the people and wildlife of Greater Manchester. City of Trees works with communities, organisations, and businesses to build an ambitious movement dedicated to planting a tree for every citizen within just five years. They have so far planted 537, 173 trees, with 1,612 of these being street trees. City of Trees has issued a guide to help local communities lobby for more street trees.
The Big Tree Plant is a TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) campaign to encourage people and communities to plant more trees in England's towns, cities, and neighbourhoods. TCV have been taking volunteers from Greater Manchester and Merseyside to do practical activities like planting trees to help improve the Green Spaces of the North West.
