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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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Trees, Planning and Development:
​A Guide for Delivery
Section One: Creating financial, environmental and social value into the future
TDAG believes trees can and should have a key role in creating better places and value for people, both aesthetically and functionally. National and local governments, along with professional institutions and associations are increasingly aware of the benefits trees deliver, not least their role in adaptation and mitigation to the threats of climate and ecological breakdown. Our new guide addresses the main issues for the key audience of planners, developers, designers and other stakeholders.
  
The guide is designed to facilitate a better understanding and to secure the range of returns trees offer new developments, and will be periodically updated to reflect any changes in planning and associated policies. It also complements Trees in Hard Landscapes: A Guide for Delivery, and is the second companion to Trees in the Townscape: A Guide for Decision Makers. All guides are freely available on our website.
 
As with all TDAG documents, careful research has been supported by a wide range of contributors and the results reviewed by an equally diverse range of industry experts.
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Available here. 

Streets for a Healthy Life (Issue 01), Homes England
This draft document has been released by Homes England as a companion to Building for a Healthy Life and Manual for Streets. It provides that vital missing element of what good, adopted residential streets should look like and how they should function. TDAG is pleased to be a member of the Sounding Board and supports this document as a valuable addition to the growing body of knowledge focused on ‘how to get it right’. Streets for a Healthy Life is referenced in TDAG’s own Trees, Planning and Development: A Guide for Delivery. Both documents are designed to be read on line and revised over time.

Available here: 
04791-sfhl_issue-01.pdf
File Size: 4634 kb
File Type: pdf
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Planning supports urban trees

The Trees and Design Action Group welcome the focus on urban trees in the proposed amendments to the NPPF, but urges that trees are considered as an integral part of our infrastructure. If trees are to have this priority then all local authorities must have evidence based tree strategies with statutory power embedded in their local plans. There should also be greater ambition to take a more creative approach to enhance the Green Belt.

However, all that we do going forward should primarily respond to the climate and ecological emergency and planning is well positioned to provide the leadership that this needs in the built and natural environment. We should not shy away from ‘red tape’ as creative red tape can be useful for setting out a level playing field and clarifying what is expected to be delivered.

Our response here:
nppf_2021_tdag_response.pdf
File Size: 190 kb
File Type: pdf
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Save Our Street Trees

​Alice Whitehead, founder of Save Our Street Trees, gave  an inspiring talk about what a community group can achieve to a recent TDAG meeting. 

Save Our Street Trees campaigns for the protection and planting of urban street trees as a result of increasing concern about the poor maintenance and disappearance of street trees in Northampton.

Alice’s presentation can be seen here

Sue James, a founding member of TDAG, explains why successful urban tree planting should matter to engineers.
The Trees, People and the Built Environment 4 urban tree research conference focused on the role of trees as an integral part of our urban infrastructure. Collaboration is key and engineers have a vital role to play working within any team. Read the full article and the blog for the Institution of Civil Engineers here

​TDAG is pleased to support the Town and Country Planning Association’s Healthy Homes Campaign.
Our thought piece on the proposal here:
tdag_tcpa4healthyhomesacta4.aw.pdf
File Size: 305 kb
File Type: pdf
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Sue James in conversation

Sharon Durdant-Hollamby, Vice President of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, invites the Trees and Design Action Group to a ‘Tree Lady Talks’ conversation. Sue James, one of the founding members, reflects on the group’s history, and discusses ongoing and future work. 

Available here: http://sharonhosegoodassociates.co.uk/tree-lady-talks-podcast/
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TDAG videos available
Futurebuild 2020 Urban Forest Pavilion Talk videos available here
  • 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​
Greater Lyon Tree Charter: a must-read!
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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.
Previous 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.
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