‘Bristolians feel strongly about trees, perhaps it’s that we keep losing them’

Remember the M32 maples, the Stapleton allotments or the Baltic Wharf Caravan Club?

To protect trees, Bristolians lock themselves to them, sleep in them, even marry them.

Bristolians feel strongly about trees, perhaps it’s that we keep losing them.

Perhaps it’s that we don’t have many in the first place. In what is one of the least wooded nations in Europe (12 per cent cover), we live in one of the least wooded parts of the country (eight per cent).

Perhaps it’s that we love and value them, for all kinds of reasons.

“To protect trees, Bristolians lock themselves to them, sleep in them, even marry them.” – photo: Daisy Brasington

A mature oak can support 300 different species of insect. An average tree absorbs 25kg of CO2 a year. Trees by roads can reduce vehicle pollution to nearby homes by 50 per cent.

Research says that when we are around trees, we are happier and less stressed.

The charity Avon Needs Trees is on a mission to create more woodland in the Bristol area, and to tackle the nature and climate crises.

At the two sites we took on since we were founded in 2019, we’ve planted 22,000 trees across 47 acres.

We have just announced a new site just north of Shepton Mallet, and in the coming weeks we will unveil our biggest project yet – a few miles from the outskirts of Bristol.

Our woodlands are permanent. We put long term land management plans in place to ensure that the trees we plant reach maturity.

Not that we’d walk away from them at this point: our charitable purpose commits us to their long-term care.

Permanence, and the care in perpetuity of woodland, is particularly important to people who support our charity.

This is perhaps unsurprising given the uproar that follows the seemingly routine felling of landmark trees that grace local landscapes.

People were enraged when contractors chopped down the majestic weeping willows near Meads Reach Bridge in December, 2022.

These were trees people loved seeing from one year to the next, like old friends. And not only do we develop relationships with trees over our own lives, we expect future generations to have the right to continue those relationships.

At Avon Needs Trees, we rely on volunteers; hundreds of people who want to do their bit.

In our recent survey of 500 of our volunteers, 89 per cent said they were very likely to volunteer with us again, and the same proportion said they’d gained new skills.

Come and plant some trees! ?

Students from @shiftbristol shared their thoughts with us after a fabulous day of learning about woodland management and planting trees at our Wiltshire sites.? pic.twitter.com/p0YRBuzA3x

— Avon Needs Trees (@AvonNeedsTrees) January 26, 2023

The tree planting season runs from November to March, but if the weather is grim, there’ll be hot drinks around a warm fire and maybe even a slice of Gill’s legendary cake.

Whether you want to curb your climate anxiety, feel like you’re part of the solution, leave this green and pleasant land in a better state than we inherited it, or try Gill’s coffee and walnut, a day of digging holes for saplings is just the thing.

For as the old Chinese proverb goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is now.

You can sign up to volunteer at avonneedstrees.org.uk/volunteering

Mark Funnell is the chair of charity, Avon Needs Trees – photo: Mark Funnell

Mark Funnell is the chair of Avon Needs Trees

Main photo: Daisy Brasington

Read next: 

• 16,000 trees to be planted in Bristol in 2023 
• Willow trees to be planted as part of new development close to where trees felled 
• ‘The council is creating a city which will be unliveable in the climate crisis’ 
• ‘Barbaric behaviour’ as weeping willow trees chopped down 

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