Save Our Street Trees Northampton
A guest blog by Alice Whitehead, founder, Save Our Street Trees Northampton
The Save Our Street Trees Northampton campaign began with one tree. My son and I called it the Candy Floss tree because of its clouds of fluffy pink blossom in spring. We passed this street tree on the school run every day. Sometimes we’d stand underneath it, sometimes we’d pick up petals or admire its leaves. Often it would trigger a conversation about conservation: why we loved our urban trees and why they were so important.
But over the years, we noticed our tree wasn’t doing so well. Its branches had become tangled and overgrown due to lack of pruning. Vans would regularly tear chunks off as they parked under the low hung branches. Then other trees in our street, and surrounding streets, began to disappear – never to be replaced.
In fact, we discovered that 58% of street trees in our district of Northampton had disappeared in the last 50 years – and it was easy to extrapolate this could be the case in the rest of the town.
In early 2016, we began to write letters to councillors and MPs, asking them to do more to protect, maintain and replace the trees. We organised a series of street tree awareness events – tree parties, tree yoga, painting competitions with schools, tree trails, and a well-supported petition. Save our Street Trees Northampton was born!
Over the last four years, we have made speeches at council meetings and residents associations, joined Northampton’s Climate Change Forum, commissioned the first-ever Street Tree Survey in Far Cotton, worked with local artists to bring the street trees to life, and created a network of local tree wardens to collate valuable information on street trees and care for new plantings.
While the work has been uphill, thanks in part to the fact Northampton County Council became bankrupt in 2018, in December 2019 we worked with both the Borough and County Councils to plant 10 new trees in Far Cotton – and our hope is this will be the start of many similar plantings in the not too distant future.
During our campaigning we have formed invaluable partnerships with organisations such as The Woodland Trust (we were shortlisted for a Woodland Trust street tree award in 2018), local groups such as Transition Town Northampton and the University of Northampton, and individuals such as urban forestry consultant Russell Horsey at Woodland Dwelling. They have encouraged, advised and campaigned on our behalf.
Above all, we have gained incredible support from the people that matter: Northampton residents. They have turned out for events, shared our key messages via our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, and become volunteer tree wardens.
The aims of the Save Our Street Trees (SOST) campaign has always been to promote the benefits and beauty of street trees, and champion their preservation, ongoing maintenance and provision – and ‘replacement in situ’ in Northampton.
Crucially, SOST promotes the idea that planting trees should not be seen as a cost but an investment that sees returns, both financially, environmentally and in the health and well-being of residents.
This year, Save Our Street Trees is delighted to be taking part in the first-ever virtual Urban Tree Festival - to celebrate our beautiful urban trees. Between May 16 and 24, we’ll be asking people all over Britain to turn over a #newleaf and create a Virtual Urban Forest in their windows for everyone to enjoy on their daily walks. Find out more here.
Alice Whitehead, founder, Save Our Street Trees Northampton
