The Gloucestershire Tree Strategy follow the mantra of the right tree in the right place for the right reason. However, 'right' in each of these circumstances is subjective. For instance, organisations differ in their opinions around the climate resilience of native UK trees - some believe that phenotypic elasticity will allow UK sourced and grown native varieties to adapt to warmer climates, while others consider the planting of more southerly specifies, such as Italian Oak, to be the better course of action to ensure woodlands are still thriving in a 2 or 3 degree future. In addition, for productive woodland, and indeed for carbon sequestration, landowners may consider spruce and larch to be appropriate, but it is clear that is nature recovery is the aim, this will not help, as monocrops of these species will lead to nature-poor forests. The Gloucestershire LNP believes a mix of species is the right way to go, with a strong focus on UK sourced and grown native trees wherever possible. Gloucestershire County Council have created a list of suggested species to focus on, which is attached here. The Woodland Trust have produced a useful list of UK Sourced and Grown accredited nurseries in the UK - those closest to Gloucestershire are highlighted in yellow on the attached document.

https://www.gloucestershirenature.org.uk/glos-tree-strategy

There are not many levels of governance at which tree planting is not enthusiastically embraced. Corporations, Whitehall, the statutory agencies and local planning authorities all have targets and pledges surrounding woodland creation. On the really local level, many communities are also interested to play their part, and their enthusiasm can be leveraged and supported by those higher up the scale. Whether you are from a local community considering tree planting, or whether you work with communities, the attached document should provide a useful set of guiding principles through which to act. Three key things stand out - firstly, that the Woodland Trust have a fund to which you can apply for free trees. Secondly, that the location needs to be suitable for trees - check it against the nature recovery network maps and any other locally available data to make sure the la nd you have in mind is not a priority habitat, or protected. and thirdly, that ongoing maintenance and management of the trees is vital to ensure they survive to maturity, Gloucestershire County Council should be able to provide support to this end, through their Community Tree Planting fund. Details of this will be uploaded to this page once we have them.