October 2021 - Big Trees, Big Future

Old avenue of London Planes- south Mcr

 It takes a fair bit of time and effort to pull together a plan for neighbourhood tree planting. Its not about rushing in with a shedload of trees and planting them willy nilly - that's a recipe for disaster.

 Manchester is painstakingly appraising each neighbourhood as regards where the least number of street trees are, so they can be  prioritised.  

The City already has significant tree/canopy cover (nearly 20%) with a lot of parks, river valleys and greenspaces well wooded. But that's not to say Manchester is " full" of trees. 

Big street trees are where it is at for Cities like Manchester. Big, bold,  beautiful whoppers that will deliver progressive resilience against the effects of climate change for many years to come. 

Noel Nugent, Tree Action MCR Officer explains.. " We have identified opportunities for street tree planting in grassed areas that we already manage within neighbourhoods first - this provides us with a quick win -  cost effective options.  Based on area visits, discussions with local communities, neighbourhood teams and councillors we get to an agreement about where we could plant new trees. 

We then provide options, looking at the right trees for each location. We then assess individual tree species suitable for a given location, based on the benefits that each tree will provide. We have a list of around 20 species that have been specifically chosen for their resilience to climate change, carbon capture and biodiversity benefits. 

Once we know what we want, we then scour  tree nurseries  and tree suppliers for the best individual trees that are available to us. Everyone wants to plant more trees, so supply can often be an issue. But having a plan really helps.."

So it's anything but scattergun, what's happening here.  In fact its pretty momentous what Manchester is achieving. 

Chaz Farghaly, head of the City's Arboriculture and Greenspaces teams spells it out..  "We think this a real moment in the history of the City's treescape. From a Council point of view, I think this is one of the biggest street tree planting programmes undertaken in recent years by a Local Authority. 

Consulting on, sourcing and eventually planting over 2000 big trees in around two years - that's an increase of  approximately 10% in the number of street trees that we manage.

 It's unprecedented - and a credit to all involved - especially my team who are charged with delivering the programme".