This website provides information and tools for individuals and communities to save and protect precious local trees. It forms part of our campaign to bring about legislative change at local and national levels.
LATEST NEWS
Canopy (National Tree Coalition)
The first meeting of this new umbrella organisation of tree-protecting groups from across the UK took place on 13th November 2023. A total of 19 participants attended a lively Zoom meeting to discuss ways we can come together from all corners of the land in order to be a greater force for tree protection. Participants The meeting included representatives from various areas of London, Plymouth, Bristol, Sheffield, Norfolk and Wellingborough. Since the launch meeting other groups have already joined in too. Ideas The group shared their experience and knowledge gained from the various campaigns for protecting trees. Break-out groups then discussed ways forward in more detail. One well-supported idea was campaigning for a ‘reverse TPO’. One participant suggested attending local council planning meetings to make [...]
Open letter to Allianz
Letter to Allianz insurers asking them to seek alternatives to felling the Oakfield Road tree.
Catherine West raises the tree issue in parliament
Debate in Parliament Catherine West, M.P. for Hornsey and Wood Green, secured a Parliamentary adjournment debate on protecting our urban trees which you can watch online here . She has seen in Haringey the impact of the lopsided balance of power between councils and insurers, with tree roots only needing to be implicated in property damage or subsidence for the tree owner to be liable. Letter to the Secretary of state Following on from the adjournment debate on 10th May, Catherine West has written to the secretary of state along with Haringey’s Cllr Mike Hakata. SHIFT is very grateful indeed for her support.
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“Ancient trees are precious. There is little else on Earth that plays host to such a rich community of life within a single living organism.”
“There’s no substitute for an ancient tree … Big old trees are the “ keystone structures ” … on which many other species depend.”
“Street trees have long been symbols of status, wealth and prospering communities”
“Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish.”
“A tree is our most intimate contact with nature.”
“Trees are as close to immortality as the rest of us ever come.”
“Tree removal is always experimental and you can’t guarantee what effect it will have.”
“The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.”
“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”
“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”
“You cannot plant an acorn in the morning, and expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of an oak.”
“There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.”
“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
“Of all man’s works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.”
“All our wisdom is stored in the trees”
“Finland is officially the world’s happiest country. It is also 75 per cent forest. I believe these facts are related.”
