Trees for Cities

🎆 A new year means new resolutions so... what is your wish for trees in 2025? Trees are with us all year round, providing us with endless benefits! Towards the end of 2024, we asked a few of our volunteers what their wishes for trees are in the future. Hear what they had to say below 👇 🌳 Let's work together to keep protecting and planting trees now and in years to come!

🔊 Our CEO Kate Sheldon was on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning during a fantastic phone-in celebrating urban trees and featuring people's treasured tree stories. 🌳 Catch Kate discuss how Trees for Cities gets people to care about trees and how we target our projects to focus on areas with low canopy cover, at 1 hour 45 mins in. We recommend listening to the whole programme (from 1 hour) with excellent insights from Qasá A., Tony Kirkham and Vicky Allan on the healing nature of trees, the challenges they face, and some of the nation's favourites. Thanks for having us!

We're honoured to have been recognised and invited to the Mercy4Mankind Awards Reception 2024, hosted by AMYA UK at the House of Commons. 💚 We were thrilled to receive a Recognition Award for 'Outstanding Services to Community'. This category was presented to particular individual/organisations who have worked inspirationally for their local community at grassroot level. 🌱 Read more: https://lnkd.in/e_nUzjCM

Today, we had an incredible opportunity to speak on BBC Radio 4's Rare Earth feature! 🌳 The programme was about celebrating and preserving urban trees, where we featured in a short segment talking about our Trees in School project at Elthorne Park High School. We got to hear from our Senior Engagement Manager, Louise Purnell, along with the school's lead teacher and students from their eco-team. 🌸 The pupils talk about the cherry tree they’ve planted called Chum, and their positive experiences greening their school. They are a great example of what more young people can do if given more opportunities to connect with urban trees and nature. 📻 Listen to the segment from 37:56 – 44:23 - https://lnkd.in/ek4J6sTF

From rounding off our 30th-anniversary celebrations with a mass community planting day to our biggest fundraising campaign to date - we've had a busy few weeks! With the support of our amazing volunteers, we planted multiple new woodlands during this year's National Tree Week 🌳🌳🌳 Our main event was on November 30th in Ashburton Playing Fields to create a new woodland for their nearby bird sanctuary 🐦 and conclude our 30th-anniversary celebrations. 180 volunteers joined us to plant 3615 whips! This was in partnership with Croydon Council. Find out what else we got up to in our National Tree Week 2024 Wrapped story: https://lnkd.in/efK5SDST

This 2024-25 tree planting season, Trees for Cities has been contributing towards the London Tree Ring, a vision for driving the creation of more woodland around our capital. 🌳 Hainault Recreation Ground in the London Borough of Redbridge was identified as a key planting opportunity to contribute towards the London Tree Ring. With the help of 150 volunteers, we planted over 2500 tree whips on November 16th, adding to the trees we planted in the same area over five years ago! 🌱 Many thanks to our partners Bupa Foundation UK who support this project and the ambition of the London Tree Ring, alongside London Borough of Redbridge and Vision - Redbridge Culture & Leisure. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/exnieE_M 👇 Hear about the project and from some of the volunteers who joined us on the day: https://lnkd.in/ehUSC8rX

Become a Tree City in 2025! 🌳 The Tree Cities of the World (TCOW) programme, run by FAO and Arbor Day Foundation, recognises cities around the world committed to providing high-quality care for their trees and the planet. The program is free to apply to and connects cities across the globe to create a network dedicated to the management of urban trees and forests to make our cities greener and air cleaner. Start your application now before Christmas! Apply by the deadline of 31st January 2025 🌎 https://lnkd.in/dffUPM9 If you have any questions or need support reaching this deadline, get in touch with Roddy at roderick.shaw@treesforcities.org.

We’re excited to be part of Bupa Foundation UK's new documentary ‘Healthy Cities’, which looks at positive climate action on a global scale. 🌱 The film highlights inspiring initiatives like our Planting Healthy Air project in London, which showcases practical solutions and coming together with a shared goal of a hopeful future. 🌳 Learn more about our work with BUPA: https://lnkd.in/ecadeqzP Watch the film below (spot us from 26:19): https://lnkd.in/epCTUZAp

On November 20th, we had a lovely evening listening to young poets inspire climate action at the first-ever Glasgow Poetry Slam! 🎙 Five Glasgow primary schools took the stage at Òran Mór for a lively poetry slam. The event aimed to inspire a connection to nature and climate action through creative expression. "Events like this educate but empower young voices, and foster a sense of hope in the face of the climate crisis." 🍃 🌳 Trees for Cities and Authors Abroad hosted the event together as part of the Trees for Climate Action initiative, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, to connect 10,000 young people with tree-related activities. Learn more about the event: https://lnkd.in/gU8pxGGy The poetry slam was also featured in Glasgow Times: https://lnkd.in/g_M4ta3e

We’re thrilled to share our work at Whetley Academy, a part of the Trees for Cities Healthy Playground programme! This partnership exemplifies the power of collaboration in creating greener, healthier spaces for children to learn and grow. Through Trees for Cities’ Edible Playground programme, vegetable beds have been installed, and trees now brighten up the tarmac playground. With these foundations in place, we’ve been leading the food-growing engagement with children and staff using our Growbag Toolkit. So far, we’ve had three excellent sessions with Years 1 and 2. Together, we’ve planted winter lettuce, kale, spring onions, garlic, broad beans, and even phacelia—a green manure that will enrich the soil. 🌱 With three more sessions to go, we’re excited to see these young gardeners thrive and explore the joys of growing their own food! Collaborations like this show how outdoor learning and hands-on experiences can transform school spaces and inspire the next generation. 🌳 What’s your favourite thing to grow in winter? Let us know below! #outdoorlearning #foodgrowinginschools #primaryschool #schoolgardensmatter  #greenspaces #primaryteacher #teachoutdoors