Trees and Design Action Group

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.
What we do How we are funded Our governance

Support our work

Make a donation through
InvestMyCommunity here

News

Our theme for this year's Seminar Series is
Designing and delivering resilience for today and tomorrow? Start with the trees

Resilience relates to more than climate resilience. We need environmental, economic and social resilience to the multiple challenges that we find ourselves facing. Trees can make a remarkable contribution to many aspects of resilience, as well as the need for us to help trees to be resilient themselves. The seminars for 2025, reflecting suggestions from TDAG members, will explore different aspects of designing and delivering resilience and the contribution that trees will make.

Our first seminar will take place on Zoom on 25th February at the later time of 3-5pm and will focus on Trees for human resilience and wellbeing. Registration details will be available soon in Events.

Our new guide – First Steps in Urban Tree Canopy Cover

This is the first guide in a two part series taking a strategic approach for urban forest planning. It is free to download here. The second part is underway and will outline in more detail canopy cover assessment at site scale.

Urban water and how to manage it

Recent heavy rain events have been a stark reminder about the need for better management of our water. TDAG’s guide First Steps in Urban Water: Managing Water as a Resource outlines the key issues and actions.

Our urban water seminar held on 15th November 2023 is available on our YouTube channel.

Our guidance on tree strategies – Trees, Planning and Development: A Guide for Delivery – Section Two: Planning the urban forest: how to develop a strategy that delivers

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.

News archive 

Core funders

European partner

environnement.
brussels

CPD partner

theihe.org

Administrative support

birmingham.ac.uk
/bifor

Contact us