How to protect and manage the urban forest
Find out how you can protect and manage trees and woodlands in urban areas.
Applies to England
What is the urban forest?
Go to the top of the tallest building in any town or city and the urban forest is all the trees you can see from the top and some you can’t. Urban trees are everywhere in our towns and cities; they grow on streets, next to railways and canals, in parks, in people’s gardens and in urban woodlands. Looking after the urban forest is the practice of managing all trees and woodlands in urban areas for the multiple benefits they provide to society.
The Forestry Commission co-ordinates the Urban Forest and Woodland Advisory Committee Network (UFWACN). This network of people who work mostly with trees in urban areas provides expert advice to the Forestry Commission on its urban forestry work. Read more about the .
Benefits of the urban forest
The urban forest provides many different benefits to our urban areas. Some of the most important ones are:
- improving the quality of the air by removing dust, polluting gases and other substances that are harmful to people
- making people feel better when they spend time in places with trees
- making different locations like parks, woodlands, squares and shopping areas enjoyable places to visit and in which to spend time
- creating shade to cool down buildings and open spaces
- cooling places down by releasing water vapour into the air
- providing places within trees’ trunks, branches and leaves for animals and other plants to live
- providing a source of food for animals and people too
People and the urban forest
The urban forest provides opportunities to engage local communities and also provides a unique green space that benefits people’s mental and physical health.
You can find out more about the benefits to mental and physical health in these blog posts:
- mental health benefits – Trees for Streets
- physical health benefits – Woodland Trust
Urban forest managers often find it a positive experience to engage the local community in working out the objectives for a piece of woodland to maximise the benefits that the woodland can deliver to the community.
Trees are also a key element of the Government’s Green Infrastructure Framework for England and you can find out on unlocking the multiple benefits of trees for people in our towns and cities in this: Introduction to the Green Infrastructure Framework.
Climate change resilience and the urban forest
Climate Change is going to bring significant challenges for people who live in urban areas, and we will all have to make changes to how we live and work. Planting and caring for urban trees will help us in this task. To do this, we need to grow trees in urban areas that are suitable not just for climate conditions now but also for how we expect them to be 40 to 50 years from now.
The best way to do this is to make sure we have many different types of trees within the urban forest. This is called species diversity and it is one of the ways we can protect the urban forest as a whole so it can continue to provide multiple benefits to our urban areas.
Guidance on species diversity and managing urban trees for climate change resilience can be found below:
- Right Trees for Changing Climate Database - which will help you decide which trees are suitable for the future climate where you live
- Trees & Design Action Group’s Tree Selection guide - which can help you select appropriate species for a range of contrasting planting scenarios
- The Urban Tree Manual - provides advice on selecting and procuring the right tree for the right place in urban areas
Looking after the urban forest
Managing the urban forest is not only about tree species selection and planting. Looking after trees throughout their entire lives takes a range of skills and expertise and the collaboration of groups of professions all working to the same goal; better, more healthy trees in our towns and cities.
It is important that landowners take a long-term view of caring for their trees and are prepared to provide enough resources to do this properly.
The following links can provide more information on good practice in managing urban trees:
- Trees for Cities website - case studies and guidance on tree planting and management in urban areas
- The London Tree Officers Association website - multiple advice pages on a range of topics
- Forestry Commission Operations Note 051: Highway Tree Management - looking at good practice tree and highway management
Managing risks including tree health in the urban forest
Successful management of the urban forest requires particular attention to tree health as often a tree health problem can indicate a risk for people too. Urban areas are often seen as presenting a more substantial disease threat mainly because of more dense populations of both trees and people. Urban areas are also a potential source for the introduction of new pests and diseases because of the intensity of activity and high volumes of travel, trade and their interaction.
Find out more about tree pests and diseases and make sure your biosecurity measures are appropriate.
If you are concerned that a tree you own or one in your urban environment has a pest or disease please report it using the Forestry Commission’s Tree Alert.
Successful management of the urban forest also involves ensuring that trees do not present a physical threat to the safety of people and infrastructure. Here are some useful documents that can provide more information:
- the National Tree Safety Group (NTSG) publishes guidance for landowners on how to fulfil their duty of care as tree owners.
- the Joint Mitigation Protocol (JMP) sets out a mutually agreed process between building insurers and local authority landowners on how building damage claims should be handled, processed and investigated when trees are thought to be causing a problem.
Data on the urban forest
We can measure the size of the Urban Forest in a particular area by assessing its tree canopy cover. Forest Research (part of the Forestry Commission) has undertaken tree canopy cover measurements across the UK down to very local levels. You can look at these measurements and also add some of the trees in your area too.
You can find out more at these websites:
- Treezilla - a citizen science project where you can help record the urban trees where you live
- Forest Research’s Tree Canopy Cover map for the UK - showing the extent of the Urban Forest
If you have further questions about the urban forest in your area, please visit your local authority website or contact your local authority tree officer.