Have you ever noticed just how many trees there are in Wrexham and the surrounding villages, even in the open countryside and the country parks and public open spaces that connect us all?
This may sound like a daft question, but just think about it. How many trees have you stopped to look at recently? How many trees have you seen newly planted? How many trees have you seen recently felled?
Trees, and the ‘green infrastructure’ they contribute so much to, are features in our landscape which – if we’re not careful – can easily be taken for granted.
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Our trees provide us with significant services: they remove pollution and provide us with cleaner air, they capture carbon, they lower the risk of flooding, reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, they provide incredibly important habitat for our threatened wildlife, they help support the very ecosystem in which we live; they improve our very health and well-being.
So it’s important that we don’t just view trees as something “nice to look at”, but that we have in place the knowledge and available resources to make sure they’re managed appropriately.
This is why Wrexham County Borough Council is very pleased and proud to have its own approved tree and woodland strategy in place: a strategy which sets out not only how we look after and protect those trees which we have throughout the Borough, but also how we’ll plant more in the coming years whilst encouraging the community and local businesses to work alongside us planting even more trees to make Wrexham a greener place to live and work in.
The Woodland Trust
We’ve recently come in for praise from the Woodland Trust, the UK’s largest conservation charity, which campaigns for the protection and restoration of trees and woodland throughout the country.
In a recent publication, the Woodland Trust marked out our ‘Tree & Woodland Strategy’ for special praise, calling us a “tree friendly” town with a “great” tree strategy; it even goes on to say that other councils could learn from the work we’ve done.
Joe Coles, the Woodland Trust’s Project Lead for Street Trees said: “These are challenging times for trees in urban environments, thanks to lack of suitable soils, conflict with hard landscapes, pests, diseases, worsening air quality, and climate change!
“Although they face these difficulties, trees are also part of the solution. Wrexham Council recognises this, and has made a commitment to its ongoing management – a strategy to ensure trees remain at the heart of urban centres… and the council wants trees to remain in the hearts of Wrexham’s residents.”
Jon Brewin, one of the two Arboricultural Officers with Wrexham Council, said: “Recognition from the Woodland Trust is a great sign of confidence in our work, and their continued support and promotion of our strategy has been indispensable.”
“Very pleased with Woodland Trust’s comments”
Cllr David A Bithell, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “I’m very pleased with the Woodland Trust’s comments and their confidence in our tree strategy. A lot of work went into the strategy, and that work will dictate how we handle our trees and look to increase canopy cover across all towns and villages in the coming years.
“We’re obviously very much aware of the expertise which the Woodland Trust has when it comes to tree management, so it’s excellent to see that we’ve come in for such glowing praise from them.”
For more information regarding our tree and woodland strategy, or the benefits and financial savings our own trees provide back to the community, or even as to how Wrexham County Borough Council manages its own tree stock on a day to day basis, visit the trees homepage on our web site.
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