As National Tree Week – the UK’s biggest annual festival of trees – gets ready to launch on Saturday, The Tree Council is calling on everyone everywhere to celebrate the value of trees, plant more and appreciate them all.
Across the UK, the presence of trees in cities, towns and rural landscapes, continues to add value to our lives every day, in many different ways. The value that trees provide can sometimes be taken for granted: they not only create a habitat for all sorts of wildlife, but provide services to humans too. We get food, fuel and building resources from them; they help prevent flooding, clean our polluted air and water supplies and conserve energy.
Trees are good for business, too. It’s been proven that trees increase property values as well as footfall in shopping or business areas, all of which helps to boost the local economy. The value and contribution of trees is immeasurable, going back to childhood memories such as climbing a favourite tree, admiring the gorgeous autumn colours they bring or simply, being glad they are around us. Whatever the reason, trees are a valuable asset and deserve to be celebrated.
The Tree Council’s National Tree Week inspires around a quarter of a million people to show they value trees. There are tree planting events, many mounted by Tree Council member organisations or its local volunteer Tree Wardens, to mark the onset of the winter tree planting season and many other tree related events will also be taking place across the country. There’s something for everyone, from celebrating a favourite local tree to walks, talks, wood fairs and Tree Dressing.
Pauline Buchanan Black, director general of The Tree Council, commented: “National Tree Week is a great time for individuals, communities and families across the UK to recognise and celebrate the value of trees. For too long, their huge economic and environmental value has been understated, and National Tree Week is the time to turn that around. Even if you don’t plant a tree, you can make sure that the trees you love are recorded on the online Treezilla map so that the information can be used to analyse the contribution each tree makes to the people, wildlife and environment nearby.”
“Everyone with a place to plant a tree can grow their own and watch it develop for the next generation and now, with both the Charter for Trees, Woods and People and Treezilla to inspire us, we can better understand and promote the value of each and every one,” she continued: “The value it adds, to the earth, to the pocket and to the heart, will form a legacy that can be widely appreciated by everyone, even those not yet born”.
