Trees and Design Action Group

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TDAG brings together a pioneering group of individuals, professionals and organisations from wide ranging disciplines in both the public and private sectors to increase awareness of the role of trees in the built environment. Learn about what we do

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News

Your Urban Forest Needs You

A wonderful blog entry on becoming an 'urban forester' from Jim Smith, currently National Urban Forestry Advisor at the Forestry Commission England, and involved with urban trees since he was 16 years old.

Read Jim's blog entry:
https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/2019/05/20/your-urban-forest-needs-you/

Coming out soon: First Steps in Valuing Trees and Green Infrastructure

If you visited us at Futurebuild 2019 recently, you will already know that TDAG and the University of Birmingham have come together again to produce a new short guide - similar, in format, to First Steps in Urban Air Quality - and you might even have added yourself to our mailing list to be notified of its release! If you didn't get a chance to come to the TDAG stand at Futurebuild - here is all you need to know about this forthcoming guidance:

Due to come out later this spring, First Steps in Valuing Trees and Green Infrastructure will focus on the basics built environment professionals need to know to make the most of available approaches for valuing trees and other green infrastructure. It will introduce the scenarios where valuation can be used as a mechanism to deliver a positive change in the way that policy, investment, design and management decisions affect environmental assets. It will also provide a range of questions, tips and tools to consider when embarking on a valuation project and offer some case studies illustrating good practice.

If you would like to be notified by email when First Steps in Valuing Trees and Green Infrastructure comes out, please REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE, and simply enter "First Steps" in the email subject.

Now available: Interactive selection tool to be used alongside TDAG's Tree Species Selection guide

A multi-criteria, interactive selection tool is now available alongside Tree Species Selection for Green Infrastructure: A Guide for Specifiers. Presented as an Excel spreadsheet, this companion tool allows users to easily sort and select the species described in the Guide based on:

Use potential,
Tree size and crown characteristics,
Environmental tolerance, and
Ornamental qualities.

The development of this additional utility was one of the main requests we received following the Guide's release. So we're delighted to have been able to provide this extra alongside an updated version ( V1.3) of the Guidance document, featuring minor corrections and amended icons for greater clarity.

Now available: Tree Species Selection for Green Infrastructure: A Guide for Specifiers

TDAG's new digital guide on tree species selection for green infrastructure is now available to download. The aim of this guide is to enable more appropriate tree selection for a wide range of urban planting sites.

The guide features some opening chapters capturing the latest evidence on how best to approach tree species selection to maximise the benefits bestowed on nearby communities while creating a more sustainable urban forest for future generations. Specific information on over 280 trees, illustrated with over 800 photographs, is included in the Tree Profiles section. A Tree Selector tool also helps identify candidate trees by a range of criteria. Click here to download a free copy of the guide and watch a video presentation of its content.

What are the basics that built environment practitioners need to know about urban air quality? Read our short guide!

It is recognised that air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health. The design of our urban infrastructure – including green infrastructure – determines where air pollution is produced, and how it disperses. It is important to dispel myths and work with evidence in understanding air quality which built environment professionals should consider at all stages of urban design and development.

TDAG is pleased to have partnered with a distinguished group of academics* in producing some preliminary guidance – First Steps in Urban Air Quality: For Built Environment Practitioners, which is available from: http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/3069/

*First Steps in Urban Air Quality. A Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG) Guidance Document. UK: London. Ferranti, E.J.S., MacKenzie, A.R., Ashworth K., and Hewitt C.N. 2017.

LTOA releases a new online resource with suggested wording for tree-related planning conditions

The London Tree Officers Association (LTOA)'s Planning Working Party has released a new resource compiling suggestions for the wording of robust planning conditions related to landscaping, arboricultural supervision, tree protection, tree planting, tree pruning, and woodland management. The conditions detailed were not written to be standard conditions as there are few standard situations where they could be directly cut and pasted. They are a starting point, to be altered and changed to fit specific circumstances as seen fit. The LTOA Planning Working Party intends to keep updating this resource based on its on-going discussions on real-life cases experienced by the officers involved, as well as on feedback submitted by users via the LTOA Forum or email.

The LTOA Planning Condition resource is available for free from: www.ltoa.org.uk/resources/planning-conditions.

Greater Lyon Tree Charter: a must-read!

The Greater Lyon Tree Charter is now available in English. The Charter was designed by the Greater Lyon Authority as a partnership-building tool to enhance the long-term management of trees across France's third largest city. It offers a set of common principles, together with a powerful rationale for action and a rich set of ideas for implementation for wide ranging audiences. So far, over 100 local and national stakeholders (including Greater Lyon's 59 boroughs, utility companies, the French equivalent of the UK's Landscape Institute, some tree nurseries, etc.) have signed the Charter, committing themselves to adhere to its Principles and to develop their own action plan for implementation. Both the approach and the recommendations featured in the Greater Lyon Tree Charter are highly relevant and directly applicable to the management of trees in towns and cities on this side of the Channel! Click here to download your copy.

...More News here!

Guides

Provides clear, robust information together with a decision-making tool to enable appropriate tree species selection for a wide range of urban planting sites and aid the diversification of the urban forest.

Compiles the basics built environment professionals need to know about urban air quality and how urban infrastructure design – including green infrastructure – determines where air pollution is produced, and how it disperses.

Explores the practical challenges and solutions to delivering trees in 21st century streets, civic spaces and surface car parks, detailing process, design and technical options.

Offers 12 principles of best practice for all those involved in local decision making to ensure that our 21st century towns and cities are underpinned by a 21st century approach to urban trees, for maximum economic, social and environmental returns.

Videos

We filmed international guest speakers Dr Kathleen Wolf and Björn Embrén at our June 2015 seminars.