TreeLink Stirling Response to the draft Tree & Woodland Policy

TreeLink Stirling response to the Stirling Council Draft Tree & Woodland Policy.

We write as the trustees of Treelink Stirling to provide comment on the draft Tree and Woodland Policy (AW 160621) in response to Stirling Council’s request for feedback on the draft.

We welcome the aims set out on the consultation webpage and the recognition that trees and woodlands deliver a broad range of economic, social and environmental benefits. The timescales recognised internationally for meaningful climate and biodiversity are extremely short – a matter of a few years. This we urge the council to treat this matter as one of the utmost urgency, and that requires a clear and effective policy that recognises the multiple values of trees and woodlands and sets out clear objectives and actions for their improvement and expansion across the council area.

Should a policy be developed to deliver on these aims and embed trees and woodlands at the heart of decision making for the council region’s people and businesses this will be a very significant and much-needed advance. Unfortunately, however, the draft policy takes an extremely narrow and operational approach to trees and woodlands and lacks the vision and strategy that are essential to meet the council’s aims which are in turn demanded by Scottish Government policy.

The overwhelming body of the document consists of operational issues setting out how the council will deal with trees in certain situations to meet minimum requirements under law. It is this very approach that continues to lead to the ongoing attrition and degradation of our trees and woodlands within the council area. To reverse this decline and deliver an effective policy, the council must look forward to the very substantial task that the Scottish Government has set and provide a clear route map as to how we get there whilst maximising benefit and value to all sectors of Stirling society. Currently, there is a near total disconnect between Scottish government policy for tree and woodland expansion and how Stirling will meet the aims of such, indeed, woodlands are almost totally overlooked in the current draft.

It is not until we reach page 14 that the tree planting programme is mentioned in any significant way and at that point detail is scant, basic and unsatisfactory. Indeed, the document currently states that even basic approaches to planting for climate resilient future trees and woodlands are not possible due to a lack of appropriate research. This is simply untrue and risks fostering fatalism and a lack of action at a time when effective action to expand our tree and woodland cover is of the utmost urgency.

To produce an effective policy that goes beyond this current ‘operations manual’, the council must consider its strategic aims and goals for tree and woodland planting in detail. Those aims set out on the consultation webpage are a great start, but they demand specific actions if they are to be met. Several examples are given below.

1) The council must consider effective expansion and renewal of urban trees. An effective and efficient approach will invest in urban trees to expand the urban tree canopy and unite disparate parks and woodland patches such that trees flow into and through our towns and cities as green infrastructure for leisure and active transport, biodiversity corridors and breaks on airborne pollution. Green streets raise property values, visitor footfall and health and wellbeing outcomes for all. This approach will maximise benefits to citizens and visitors to our built environment, minimise cost by smart planting locations and add enormous economic and social value to our built environments as habitat and heritage – for people, plants and animals alike.

2) Scottish government targets for tree planting and climate change mitigation are ambitious yet non-independent. This interlinkage represents a clear opportunity for the council to hit multiple targets with the same investment. The council must set out clear and spatially explicit plans for which areas are to be planted with trees, which species in which locations and when. Dovetailing tree planting with other priority actions such as flood risk reduction and urban renewal will allow a landscape-scale prioritisation of locations to take place to deliver for ecosystem services, carbon and biodiversity goals. Local communities must be consulted on what they want from their trees and woodlands and involved in the planning and decision-making process from early on.

3) Planting trees does not deliver a woodland overnight. Forest ecosystems take centuries to mature and become self-sustaining yet this development time provides opportunity for the council to meet wider biodiversity goals. The Council must give thought to management of planted areas before a recognisable woodland structure develops. Until such time planted stands provide opportunity for species of open areas but are typically at risk of invasive species establishment and in need of routine maintenance to maximise tree establishment and remove impediments. Thus, this policy must also be fully integrated with Alive With Nature.

4) We urge Stirling Council to commit to affiliating with the United Nations Tree Cities of the World programme. ‘City’ here refers to a local authority area so in Stirling’s case it would include the rural and urban parts of the authority. In practical terms, this would mean that the Council would commit to meeting the programme's five principles.

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1.Identify an officer or team in the Council with the overall responsibility for managing and planting trees and woodlands.

2. Ensure that a clear inventory of trees and woodlands is maintained and shared.

3. Detail the Council’s strategy for protecting, managing and increasing trees and woodlands.

4. Make a clearly identifiable budget available for tree and woodland management and planting.

5. Raise awareness of the benefits of trees and woodlands through community engagement and celebration of the benefits of trees in our communities.

These commitments are fully in line with the aims set out for the tree and woodland policy in the web page preamble referred to at the beginning of our response and would, therefore, help the Council to meet its ambitious tree planting targets. Formal commitment would ensure that the focus is not just on numbers planted but on getting 'the right trees into the right places' and on looking after our existing trees and woodlands. Crucially, it would commit a budget to this essential work. Currently, there is no mention of the funding sources by which the policy aims might be met and thus greater clarity on this point is needed if the council is to move from policy to action.

In summary, we ask the council to set out a complete revision of its policy that is centred upon a clear vision and strategy, embedding trees and woodlands as a fundamentally important and highly valued component of our rural and urban landscapes such that that value is developed for all of Stirling’s people.