Natural History Wanderings

Press release from the National Tree Council

National Tree Week 2012 is Saturday 24th November – Sunday 2nd December

Recent events have confirmed that the view across the countryside and in our towns is set to change faster than anyone could have expected. In recent years, pests and diseases have started to threaten some of our most loved trees, such as oak and horse chestnut, but the spread of Chalara fraxinea (ash dieback) and the anticipated devastation of the UK population of ash trees has left everyone considering what the next steps should be.

National Tree Week was launched in 1975 to maintain the tree planting momentum to replace the losses resulting from Dutch elm disease, which had already wiped out more than 20 million of our most significant landscape trees. The Tree Council has run the festival every year since, encouraging everyone to celebrate the tree planting season in a variety of ways, not least of which is by planting more trees. This year, once again, the landscape is being altered. We are facing losses that will change the view out of our windows, from town pavements, country footpaths and across fields and woods. Since trees make a difference to so many aspects of life, wildlife and biodiversity – and that includes people – will be affected. We need to act to change our view, both figuratively and literally.

“Anyone with land of their own, whether a garden, woodland or field, can make a difference to their view by adding a tree”, said Pauline Buchanan Black, Director-General of The Tree Council. “This year, though, the campaign carries particular significance as we look for ways to minimise the impact of ash dieback and carefully consider what to plant. Rising concern about tree diseases has also reminded us of the importance of checking not only where the seed of their tree started life, but also where it was germinated and grown. Not since Plant A Tree in ’73 has there been the same urgency to safeguard a view for the future”.

Alasdair Douglas, Chair of The Tree Council, added “It is almost exactly 40 years since Secretary of State for the Environment Peter Walker stood up in the House of Commons and announced that the following year was to be designated National Tree Planting Year. This was the Government initiative to encourage the planting of new trees to replace those millions killed by Dutch Elm Disease. The Tree Council was formed from that initiative and has been running National Tree Week ever since. We couldn’t have foreseen that we’d be faced with the losses from a tree disease of similar epidemic proportions just as we go in to National Tree Week but this seems a timely moment to ask the public to think carefully about what will happen to their view and what they will do to restore it for future generations.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Press Release 21st November 2012

See over for further information1. For further information, please contact (press enquiries only) Pauline Buchanan Black, Director-General; land line: 020 7407 9992 / mobile: 07753 690495 Margaret Lipscombe, Programme Director; mobile: 07967 201 624 Jon Stokes, Programme Director; mobile: 07850 389 862

2. National Tree Week The 38th annual National Tree Week will run from 24th November to 2nd December 2012 and marks the launch of the bare root tree planting season. First run in 1975, National Tree Week was launched to plant new trees to replace those killed by Dutch elm disease – “Plant A Tree In ‘73”. Every year, upward of half a million adults and children take part in thousands of events across the UK, arranged by Tree Council member organisations, many of its 8000 volunteer Tree Wardens, local community groups and schools. Most events involve tree planting, but many also use other ways of raising tree awareness such as woodland walks, tree identification tours, workshops, talks, tree surveys as well as Wood Fairs with woodturning demonstrations and storytelling. Many local authorities also give out free tree packs to those who wished to plant their own.

Visit The Tree Council’s website, http://www.treecouncil.org.uk/ for details of local National Tree Week events and tips on tree planting and aftercare. Event information is also available from the Tree Council infoline, 020 7940 8180 (office hours)

3. The Tree Council Environmental charity The Tree Council is the UK’s lead charity for trees in all settings, urban and rural, promoting their importance in a changing environment and it works in partnership with communities, organisations and government to make trees matter to everyone. As the coalition body for over 180 organisations working together for trees, it focuses on getting more trees, of the right kind, in the right places; better care for all trees of all ages and inspiring effective action for trees.

It works with its national volunteer Tree Warden Scheme and member organisations to engage people in biodiversity and environmental issues and to promote planting and conservation of trees and woods in town and country. A major part of this is achieved through its annual Community Action Programme that includes Walk in the Woods month, Seed Gathering Season and National Tree Week (first run in March 1975), and through supporting groups organising local events.

It operates a tree-planting grants programme for UK schools and communities to plant trees and create woodland habitats, as well as working on an agenda for change that includes its annual Tree Care Campaign, the Green Monuments Campaign and Hedge Tree Campaign.

4. Chalara fraxinea (ash dieback) The latest information from Defra and the Forestry Commission on the disease and its impact can be

found at http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/tag/ash-dieback/ and http://www.forestry.gov.uk/chalara.

5. Tree Council Member action RHS Dig Together Day 2012 (during National Tree Week’s first weekend, 24-25 November) The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) annual celebration of the work of UK gardening clubs and societies, of which there are nearly 3,000 affiliated with the RHS, will see thousands of trees planted across Britain. Events range from large-scale projects such as the planting of 200,000 trees in Immingham, Lincolnshire to smaller activities like that in Jersey where local schools planted three oak saplings to replace a felled tree. The outbreak of ash dieback has been devastating but it is important to retain ash trees for as long as we can. The RHS is therefore recommending, in areas that are unplanted, a diverse selection of trees to reduce the impact of any future spread of diseases. To find out more about RHS Dig Together Day 2012, visit: http://www.rhs.org.uk/digtogetherday.