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Forestry England Westonbirt has announced the launch of the Global Conservation Consortium (GCC) for Whitebeams, Rowans and Service trees. Working with other partners across the UK, the GCC will build upon previous and existing efforts to work towards protecting the future of these threatened trees.

The Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) pays farmers and land managers to manage land in a way that protects, restores or enhances the environment, or mitigates the effects of climate change. The CSHT will roll out in a controlled way by invitation, so that everyone gets the right level of support. Natural England or the Forestry Commission (or both) will provide pre-application advice from January 2025 to enable farmers and land managers to prepare for an application.

Measures to accelerate housebuilding have been set out as part of wider proposals for the upcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The Bill will play a key role in promoting economic and environmental growth. Under the new reforms, developers will be able to pay into the Nature Restoration Fund allowing building to proceed immediately with a delivering body, such as Natural England, taking responsibility for securing the environmental outcomes.

In July this year, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, announced that they believed over 50% of trees could be at risk by 2090 due to environmental changes caused by climate change. Tune into this insightful podcast, where the head of tree collections at Kew shares the research that Kew has done to reach this conclusion. The podcast can be accessed by searching for Hortweek on your preferred podcast provider.

A survey of nearly 6,000 houses across 42 developments found that only half of the promises to protect nature had been kept. Researchers from the University of Sheffield visited housing estates across five Local Planning Authorities, with the mission to compare what had been promised as a condition of getting permission to build. The findings have been presented in their Lost Nature report.

Earlier this month, the Government published the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) setting out the planning policies for England, and how these are expected to be applied. The key changes focus on housing targets and an increased emphasis on affordable housing, particularly social rent.

There were very limited changes that relate to trees, with no changes to any text and just two key paragraph numbers being altered.

Groundbreaking project successfully trains detection dogs to identify the tree pathogen Phytophthora ramorum. This destructive organism can cause extensive damage or death to more than 150 plant species. With the increase in movement of goods and people between countries and climate change increasing this latest innovation will help to protect the UKs trees and woodlands.