Celebrating National Tree Week

Trees are an incredible asset, conferring a huge range of benefits to people and the environment, which are especially valuable in our changing climate and biodiversity crisis.

Just some of these benefits include creating vital links between fragmented habitats, and providing food and homes for wildlife, from birds and mammals to insects and lichen. Through photosynthesis, trees convert carbon dioxide to sugars, locking away carbon in their tissues as they grow.

In the urban environment, temperatures can far exceed those in the surrounding countryside in what’s known as the Urban Heat Island effect. This means that for those living in towns and cities, extreme heat events can be even more severe and pose a serious risk to health and life.

As well as providing shade, the evaporation of water from trees’ leaves (transpiration) creates a cooling effect, in much the same way as sweating does for us. Urban trees and greater canopy cover can help reduce the impacts of increasingly hot summers, especially on the most vulnerable people.

Trees also capture particulates and improve air quality and can form a natural screen to reduce noise pollution. The list goes on, but it’s clear that trees are key to our future.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Tree Service manages the county’s tree stock, across the highway network and council-owned properties, estates and schools. Our Tree Officers work to ensure we have a healthy, diverse and resilient treescape, with public safety at the heart of what we do.

In the last two years, over 800 standard trees (a few years old and usually 1.5-2 metres tall) have been planted on highways land countywide. This planting season, we’re set to double that number with another 800 new street trees.

All the trees we plant are looked after by our new in-house Tree Aftercare and Planting Service (the TAPS team) for the next three years, with help from our growing contingent of volunteer Tree Guardians. This assistance gives our trees the best chance possible to establish well and live a long and healthy life.