Free or subsidised trees: a free lunch and learn workshop

Join Sophie Hamnett, Trees Outside Woodland project officer at Chichester District Council who led on this pilot, The Tree Council's director of science and research, Jon Stokes, and Jill Rudgewell, Trees Outside Woodland evaluation specialist at Natural England to hear about the surprising findings of the pioneering research by the Shared Outcomes Fund Trees Outside Woodland project.

For decades, councils, charities and other organisations have given away bundles of young trees for free to residents, community groups, schools and businesses. These have distributed trees at scale, however, the effectiveness of these schemes at establishing trees was unknown as survival rates were not monitored. The pilot undertaken by the project has revealed they are an effective way to establish trees in non-woodland areas at scale, and that asking applicants to make a small contribution to their trees improves survival rates while cutting the capital cost to the organisation distributing the trees.

A presentation detailing the research and its findings will be followed by an open Q&A, for which we will be joined by Emma Cross, Trees Outside Woodland project officer at Norfolk County Council, who also participated in the pilot. 

This talk is part of a series sharing the outcomes of our Trees Outside Woodland trials, in partnership with Defra, Natural England, Kent County Council, Chichester District Council, Cornwall Council, Norfolk County Council, and Shropshire Council which seeks to identify cost-effective methods that could be adopted by local authorities to increase tree canopy cover in England.