Forgotten Places
We want to ensure no community is left behind as we work to plant urban trees across the UK. Through Forgotten Places, Trees for Cities helped local authorities who may have lacked either the resources or capacity to increase their urban trees; planting in coastal towns and cities with 10% canopy cover or less.
Trees for Cities and partners have planted 69,842 trees across 79 locations in seven coastal areas, with 16,000+ trees taking root last season across Bexhill, Brighton, Great Yarmouth, Hull, Portsmouth, Ramsgate and Stockton. This project showcases our model for strategic evidenced-based planting, demonstrating how urban forestry can play a vital role in the green recovery of our coastal heritage, which has suffered disproportionately from lack of investment and opportunity. Key highlights of the project were the creation of new green jobs and the power of quality partnerships. 12 new jobs were created, 36 retained and 17 trainees were hired. Staff reported developing new knowledge and skills, whilst trainees gained a greater awareness of jobs in the green sector.
Last season saw the culmination of our deep dive work in Bexhill, and we produced a Bexhill Tree Planting Strategy in collaboration with partners at Treeconomics. To help support partners navigate the planting challenges presented by coastal environments, we published our Tree Planting in Coastal Towns and Cities Guide, developed in collaboration with Forest Research. The programme was celebrated in our Trees Breathe Life campaign, calling on the public to share the importance of trees in their coastal towns and cities.
The project has been particularly successful in engaging people with little or no experience of tree planting. We are continuing to partner with ever more people and authorities—both coastal and inland—to ensure trees are planted where they are needed most in towns and cities.
0
trees planted in partnership across the multi-year programme, with 20,118 people engaged via community planting events, tree ID guides, training and celebration events.