Trees and Design Action Group

The Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG) is a world first
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

The England Tree Strategy Consultation

The consultation ended on 11th September and the Trees and Design Action Group liaised with a large number of organisations to confer on key messages in its response found here which outlines what needs to be included in a tree strategy and makes four critical points:

1.   The final England Tree Strategy must be enshrined in law.

2.   All local authorities in England must have evidence based tree strategies (which are different to Green Infrastructure strategies) embedded in their local plans.

3.   Targets must be ambitious and more than the consultation document is suggesting for rural, peri-urban and urban tree cover.

4.   There should be comprehensive digital records in all local authorities for existing tree stocks so that long term planting, natural regeneration and management plans can be effective.

TDAG has also been working with other organisations to develop a ‘golden thread’ of key issues on which we all agree. This has been organised and collated by the Tree Council and can be found here. This has been sent to Lord Goldsmith, the Minister responsible and received a positive response.

The next step is to ensure that the final draft for the England Tree Strategy, currently due later in 2020, is the subject of further consultation.

Street Design Standards – Briefing Sheet 2020

This briefing sheet sets out current and withdrawn practice for street design standards. This will inform and empower urban designers, tree officers, highway designers and planners to ensure that current standards are applied to all street design projects whether new developments or retrofitting. Available at
https://www.udg.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/Briefing-Sheet-Street%20Design%20Standards%20-%20Published%202020-08.pdf

New TDAG videos available!

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some TDAG members are making the talks they gave in early March at Futurebuild 2020's Urban Forest Pavilion available online: some are in simple slide format, others feature slides with voiceover recording and a few where captured live as video recordings. Check our page dedicated to the Futurebuild 2020 Urban Forest Pavilion Workshops to download or watch. We will keep adding videos as presenters are able to make them available to us. Presentations available so far include:

Assessing Urban Forest Sustainability in a Changing Climate, presented by Dr Kieron Doick, Head of Urban Forest Research Group, Forest Research
Urban Hedges: Many Green Infrastructure Benefits, presented by Tijana Blanusa, Principal Horticultural Scientist, Royal Horticultural Society
Tree Planting Strategies, presented by Kenton Rogers, Co-founder, Treeconomics
Green Streets – Learning from Leeds City Region, presented by Professor Alan Simson, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Forestry, Leeds Beckett University
Green, Blue and Grey – Achieving Parity of Valuation by Interdisciplinary Collaboration, presented by Howard Gray, PR & Specification Consultant, GreenBlue Urban
Green Infrastructure for Roadside Air Quality: Introducing Free, Prototype Software to Predict the Site-specific Impacts of ‘GI4RAQ’, presented by Dr James Levine, Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham (School of Geography, Earth Environmental Sciences), University of Birmingham

TDAG is supporting Teach the Future

We face a number of ‘wicked problems’ most seriously the complexity of those brought about through climate and ecological breakdown caused by human behaviour.

A ‘wicked problem’ (Rittel and Webber, 1973), is one that has no simple answer. We all need to collaborate and work together effectively to find solutions to put into practice.

The ‘Teach the Future Campaign’ (www.teachthefuture.uk) demands the reform of the education system to integrate knowledge about climate change and ecological breakdown as a requirement throughout all parts of the curriculum. A better informed community should be more capable of taking action on these ‘wicked problems’.

The Trees and Design Action Group has a less ambitious parallel aim – to integrate trees into all aspects of planning and delivery in the built environment. But, the principles of engaging, persuading, encouraging and requiring those, who may not have the same understanding of the issues or the consequences of not doing so, are similar.

Better informed young people will contribute to better informed citizens able to tackle these ‘wicked problems’ – we need to ‘Teach the Future’ now!

Reporting on the Urban Forest Pavilion at Futurebuild 2020

The Urban Forest Pavilion, curated by the Trees and Design Action Group, provided a notable landmark at Futurebuild 2020. The workshop programme was very well received and several people attended more than one session. For interest the programme can be seen here.

We can say with confidence that our aim of raising awareness in urban trees in the built environment and the critical need to collaborate for success was achieved.

We look forward to furthering this progress in 2021!

Now available: First Steps in Valuing Trees and Green Infrastructure

Many tools and methods are now available for valuing trees and other green infrastructure assets. How do they compare? Can they all be used for the same purpose? Can the use of valuation really help achieve better decision-making on environmental assets?

This short guide produced in partnership with the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) and the School of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Science of the University of Birmingham aims to provide some basic, accessible answers.

It introduces 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 provides a range of tips and questions to consider when embarking on a valuation project, explains the applicability, strengths and limitations of some of the main valuation tools available in the UK, and offers some case studies illustrating good practice.

The guide is free to download. Share it widely!

New data reveals the power of big trees, and the impact of tree management on the benefits we derive from trees

Forest Research has compiled extensive datasets on tree benefits arising from UK-based i-Tree Eco studies together with literature from academic, industry, central and local government sources to investigate how ecosystems services provided by trees vary across 30 species commonly found in the urban landscape, and how management decisions further impact benefits derived.

Findings from this excellent work illustrate that management practices significantly influence ecosystem services delivery by urban forests through selection of the trees planted, how trees are maintained, and when and for what reasons trees are removed. This research also demonstrates that healthy large trees provide the greatest quantities of ecosystem services per tree, emphasising the importance of urban forest management that values and protects these trees.

This work is available in three separate publications by Forest Research:

Research Note: Understanding the role of urban tree management on ecosystem services, which provides an overview of the findings, summarising key figures presented in the two research reports listed below, while drawing clear conclusions on practical implications for urban tree management.

Research Report: Ecosystem services delivery by large stature urban trees reviews the provision of four ecosystem services by 12 large stature tree species using the i-Tree Eco model and compares the performance of trees in different age classifications and climate regions.

Research Report: Ecosystem services delivery by small and medium stature urban trees reviews the provision of four ecosystem services by 18 small and medium stature tree species using the i-Tree Eco model and compares the performance of these trees in different age groups.

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

Compiles accessible information and advice about the use of economic valuation approaches for trees and green infrastructure, which tool or method to choose and how to get started.

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.