Launched in December 2010, The Big Tree Plant is a Government-sponsored campaign in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to promote the planting of one million tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s in neighbourhoods where people live and work. The campaign will run over four years from 2011 to 2015, and is the first such initiative since Plant A Tree In '73

Plant A Tree In '73

Plant A Tree In '73 was a Government-sponsored national campaign in the United Kingdom, aimed at encouraging the population to participate by planting trees during the 1973 'National Tree Planting Year'...

.

Background

The campaign aims to halt the ongoing decline in urban and semi-urban tree planting in England. The decline was highlighted by a survey of urban trees in England carried out in 2005 (published as the report Trees in Towns II in 2008), which found that there had been a 'big reduction' in urban tree planting (compared to a similar 1992 survey) leading to an 'unsatisfactory age structure' with too few young trees, and which concluded that the issue should be 'urgently addressed'. In London a separate 2007 report, Chainsaw Massacre, found that there were concerns about planting rates in some boroughs, and that mature broadleaf street trees throughout London were under 'severe threat' due to a mixture of development

Real estate development

Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...

 pressures, reduced expenditure, public apathy

Apathy

Apathy is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical or physical life.They may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in...

 and antipathy

Antipathy

Antipathy is dislike for something or somebody, the opposite of sympathy. While antipathy may be induced by previous experience, it sometimes exists without a rational cause-and-effect explanation being present to the individuals involved....

, and (often unsubstantiated) concerns by insurance companies, solicitors and home-owners over subsidence

Subsidence

Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation...

. Both reports also express concern over the practice of planting smaller ornamental species rather than native broadleaf trees such as plane

Platanus

Platanus is a small genus of trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae....

, lime

Tilia

Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...

 and oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

.

Funding

Funding of £4.2m will be made available for community, civic and other non-profit groups from April 2011. In addition to covering planting costs, grants can be used for related purposes such as community involvement, site surveys and the provision of expert advice. £4m of the funding is being provided by the Forestry Commission through 'efficiency savings and reprioritisation', while the remaining £200,000 will come from the existing London Tree and Woodland Community Grant. The independently chaired Big Tree Plant Grants Panel will include representatives from civil society organisations, DEFRA, and the Forestry Commission, and will meet each spring and summer to award funds.

In advance of the main funding, Keep Britain Tidy - one of the partners supporting the initiative - has already invited applications for planting kits from schools in the Government's Eco-School programme.

Criticism

The funding arrangements, specifically the fact that the grants will normally only cover up to 75% of the cost of each scheme (although free labour can be offset against this), have been criticised as favouring better-off over deprived communities.

Partners

The DEFRA

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...

-led The Big Tree Plant campaign is backed by a number of partners including The Tree Council, Woodland Trust

Woodland Trust

The Woodland Trust is a conservation charity in the United Kingdom concerned with the protection and sympathetic management of native woodland heritage.-History:...

, Trees for Cities

Trees for Cities

-History:The charity was founded in 1993, initially as Trees for London to "advance the education of the public in the appreciation of trees and their amenity value, and in furtherance of this the planting and protection of trees everywhere, and in particular inner city areas"...

, England’s 12 Community Forests

Community Forests in England

England's twelve community forests are afforestation-based regeneration projects which were established in the early 1990s. Each of them is a partnership between the Forestry Commission and the Countryside Agency, which are agencies of the British government, and the relevant local councils.Most of...

, the National Forest

National Forest, England

The National Forest is one of England’s most ambitious environmental projects. Across parts of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, are being transformed, blending ancient woodland with new planting to create a new national forest...

, BTCV

BTCV

BTCV is a British charitable organisation that works to facilitate environmental conservation through practical tasks undertaken by volunteers...

, Civic Voice, Groundwork UK

Groundwork UK

Groundwork UK is an environmental organisation in the United Kingdom.-History:In 1980, the Countryside Commission launched an initiative known as UFEX80. This was re-branded as "Operation Groundwork" in 1981, and the first Groundwork Trust came into being at St. Helens and Knowsley that year...

, Keep Britain Tidy

Keep Britain Tidy

Keep Britain Tidy is a British campaign run by the Keep Britain Tidy environmental charity, which is part funded by the UK government. The majority of their campaigning is around the issue of litter. They have been using "Keep Britain Tidy" as their slogan for almost fifty years...

, the Local Government Association

Local Government Association

The Local Government Association is a voluntary lobbying organisation acting as the voice of the local government sector in England and Wales, which seeks to be an authoritative and effective advocate on its behalf....

, the Department for Communities and Local Government

Department for Communities and Local Government

The Department for Communities and Local Government is the UK Government department for communities and local government in England. It was established in May 2006 and is the successor to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, established in 2001...

 and the Forestry Commission

Forestry Commission

The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....

.

See also

• Plant A Tree In '73
  Plant A Tree In '73
  Plant A Tree In '73 was a Government-sponsored national campaign in the United Kingdom, aimed at encouraging the population to participate by planting trees during the 1973 'National Tree Planting Year'...
  
   - a similar campaign in 1973.
• Treeplanting
  Treeplanting
  Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture, and from the lower cost but slower and less reliable distribution of tree seeds.In silviculture the...
  
  
• Urban forest
  Urban forest
  An urban forest is a forest or a collection of trees that grow within a city, town or a suburb. In a wider sense it may include any kind of woody plant vegetation growing in and around human settlements. In a narrower sense it describes areas whose ecosystems are inherited from wilderness...
  
  

External links

• The Big Tree Plant - official site
• The benefits of urban trees - Trees for Cities