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The Trees and Design Action Group (TDAG), brings together individuals, professionals, academics and organisations from wide ranging disciplines in both the public and private sectors to improve knowledge and good practice to support the role of urban trees through better collaboration in the planning, design, construction and management and maintenance of our urban places.
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NewsTDAG Seminars for 2026
The theme for 2026 is ‘Trees as critical urban infrastructure’ looking at the physical, social and economic aspects of infrastructure. The details will be in the Events guide later in January but meanwhile save the dates: 1. Wednesday 11th February 2026 2-4pm GMT 2. Wednesday 22nd April 2026 2-4pm BST 3. Wednesday 20th May 2026 2-4 pm BST 4. Wednesday 17th June 2026 2-4 pm BST 5. Wednesday 15th July 2026 2-4pm BST 6. Wednesday 23rd September 2026 2-4pm BST 7. Wednesday 21st October 2026 2-4pm BST 8. Wednesday 18th November 2026 2-4pm GMT 9. Wednesday 9th December 2026 2-4pm GMT TDAG Newsletter – December 2025
This includes TDAG events and activities; events organised by others and an extensive list of new publications and research. We would like to encourage more research dissemination and so are introducing a ‘Research Round-up – Implications for practitioners’ inviting researchers to tell us about their completed projects and why they are relevant for practitioners working with trees. Please submit a short outline here. 
London’s Urban Forest Future Climate Suitability Assessment Project led by Dr Andy Hirons, Director of the Urban Plant Lab and co-author of the TDAG species guide and Kevin Martin, Research Fellow at the Urban Plant Lab and Head of Tree Collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is now ready to use and you can access it here: Future Climate Suitability Assessment of London’s Public Realm Trees.
While the findings are specific to London, the principles can be applied elsewhere and a key message is that “huge opportunities exist to improve the suitability of urban trees to future climate through positive shifts in policy and practice. Congratulations to the winner and runners-up of the first TDAG/Mersey Forest Ideas Lab Early Career Research Prize
We received a number of very interesting urban tree research projects from early career researchers from which 6 were shortlisted to present at the TDAG seminar on 4th November. The audience voted for the winner and two runners-up and we are pleased to announce the results: – The prize winner was Elle Smith from the University of Leeds for her work on The role of private garden trees and woodland cover for 3-30-300 success in seven English cities – In second place was Will Leaning from the University of Sheffield for his work on Predicting the impacts of climate change on urban green populations and urban forest strategies – In third place was Isabella Bhoan of WW+ P Architects for her work on Learning the Land Digitally – LIM. Our congratulations to the winner and runners-up, but our thanks and appreciation to all the presenters for a superb insight into the work they are all doing. You can see all six research presentations and a recording of the event, including the keynote talk by Professor Cecil Konijnendik in Past Events.
The success of Tree Species Selection for Green Infrastructure within the UK has led to a collaboration between TDAG and Environnement.brussels, to bring the evidence-based guidance to new audiences in Belgium and beyond. We are proud to announce that this guide is now available in French and Dutch from the 'Our Guides' page above. These direct translations of the original English version will expand the value of the original work and support those specifying trees across a larger region in north-west Europe. Bruxelles Environnement has also published adapted versions of Trees in the Townscape and Trees in Hard Landscapes into French and Dutch as part of the Renature.Brussels project.
The urgent need for urban trees
Sue James, Convenor of the Trees and Design Action Group in a wide ranging conversation with Vanessa Champion, Editor of the Journal of Biophilic Design.
Information filled TDAG stand at Futurebuild
The full Futurebuild 2025 knowledge programme recordings are now available without charge to watch here.
This is published alongside an update of Section One and outlines how such a strategy can be developed for local authorities and for all owners of trees and woodlands.
Accompanying this, Appendix: Urban forest sustainability performance Indicators for the UK is an aid to monitory progress once a strategic plan has been agreed. Briefing Note 01: Legislation, policy and guidance on trees and development throughout the UK adds further support. With the evidence-based understanding that urban trees can delivery multiple social, environmental and economic benefits particularly in the context of our two critical challenges of climate change and biodiversity decline, ensuring that existing urban trees are retained and that new trees are a requirement for all new developments, TDAG is calling for all local authorities to have adopted tree strategies. Available from Our Guides. |
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Sue James [email protected] Seminars Emma Ferranti [email protected] Follow us BlueSky Please note: TDAG does not have the resources to comment on individual tree cases or other local issues. | ||||||||||||||
