Read how we’re working to create two new woodlands and plant street trees across the capital, and how you can show your support this National Tree Week.
London’s urban forest of 8 million trees works hard for our city. From cleaning the air and water, to reducing flooding and cooling the city in summer. They also provide a valuable home for the city’s wildlife. But this year more than ever, London’s trees and green spaces have been working hard for us Londoners, becoming vital to people’s mental and physical well-being during the COVID-19 lockdowns, proving their critical role as an essential part of London’s infrastructure.
We know that Londoners have a passion for trees. Last year around 20,000 volunteers joined us in planting tens of thousands of trees across London during National Tree Week. While it’s not possible to involve so many people this year, we’re still working hard to increase the number of trees in the capital and unlock the many benefits for the city.
Creating new woodlands
This week, volunteers (working at a safe social distance) kick-started the planting of London’s newest woodland with Enfield Council and environmental charity Thames 21. This has been made possible through the Mayor’s woodland creation project. Over £700k of City Hall funding will help create the new woodland which will form part of the restoration of Enfield Chase. When completed the project will create 60 hectares of new publicly accessible, species-rich woodland across Enfield’s green belt. It will link existing woodlands, field boundaries and individual veteran trees and provide natural flood management, helping reduce flooding in communities downstream in the Salmons Brook catchment. A second woodland project, also funded by the Mayor, is taking place in Havering, led by the Woodland Trust and resulting in around 130,000 new trees for London in total.
Greening London’s streets
London’s trees are estimated to provide at least £133m of benefits to Londoners every year. Street trees are particularly valuable as they help improve air quality by removing pollution, including harmful PM10 particulates and NO2 roadside emissions as well as making our streets more beautiful and pleasant for walking and cycling. The Mayor is funding almost 7,000 new street trees across 20 boroughs having secured over £2 million from the Forestry Commission as part of the Government’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund earlier this year. Planting is targeted at neighbourhoods with less than 20 per cent tree cover, with over 2,000 trees planted last winter, and the remainder to be planted by March.
Planning for the future of our urban forest
Since 2016, the Mayor has funded the planting of over 280,000 trees across London. However, scaling this up, ensuring that new trees thrive and looking after our existing ones, requires a coordinated approach and a solid plan. That’s why we’ve teamed up with the Forestry Commission to bring together the various London organisations that look after trees and woodlands to form the London Urban Forest Partnership. This week, the Partnership launched their London Urban Forest Plan which sets out priorities for protecting, managing, expanding and promoting involvement with London’s urban forest.
The London Recovery Programme aims to reshape London as a fairer, more equal, greener and more resilient city than it was before the COVID-19 crisis. Investment in making our city greener will form a key part of our Green New Deal, creating jobs and training opportunities whilst tackling the climate and ecological crises.
Like many things in 2020, National Tree Week is a little different to usual, but trees have never been more important to our city. If you want to get to show your support for tree planting this week, read our five tips for how you can get involved.
You can also view our maps of London's tree canopy cover, green cover and much more.