Birmingham branches out to become UK’s first ‘Tree City’
BIRMINGHAM is vying to be the UK’s first officially designated ‘Tree City’ as it hopes to be at the forefront of a new global environmental initiative.
As well as having enough trees to match its million-strong population, Birmingham will also need to meet five core standards to develop an urban forestry programme.
The scheme is backed by the USbased Arbor Day Foundation (ADF), a non-profit organisation founded in Nebraska in 1972 “to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees”.
Talks to establish Birmingham as the UK’s first officially designated ‘Tree City’ were recently held between the city council and the ADF.
The five include:
A written statement by city leaders delegating responsibility for the care of trees;
An official trees;
A stock;
A dedicated
core
detailed
standards
policy
inventory
annual
to
would
manage
of
budget
tree
for routine implementation of the tree management plan;
An annual celebration of trees to raise awareness among residents and to acknowledge citizens and staff members who carry out the city tree programme.
It is hoped that if the talks go well, a final decision on ‘Tree City’ status could be made later this year.
Councillor John O’Shea, Cabinet Member for Street Scene and Parks at Birmingham City Council, said: “The people of Birmingham know that our parks and open spaces are some of our greatest assets.
“They add huge value to all aspects of our daily lives.
“That isn’t recognised enough outside our city, but becoming a world ‘Tree City’ would raise our green profile and hopefully attract many more visitors to our great city, to see what we have to offer.
There are 1,398 hectares of woodland (equivalent to 2,097 football pitches) within Birmingham’s 591 parks and open spaces.
But one of the city centre’s oldest collection of mature trees was recently chopped down to make way for HS2. And eight trees were axed in Hurst Street. The council said they were the wrong species.