By Jason Brock
A few weeks ago, we revealed that we’d reached our target of planting over 300 new trees during the winter.
In fact, we planted 320 new trees, as well as replacing 86 dead and felled trees during the planting season.
This is an important commitment that we’re making to our environment in Reading, as planting trees helps reduce flooding and noise, improves wildlife habitat, provides shade as temperatures rise in the summer and improves the character and colour of the town.
Reading’s Tree Strategy aligns with the Council’s Climate Change Strategy, with tree planting helping to absorb carbon dioxide from the air and contributing to the ambition for Reading to be net zero carbon by 2030.
Our aim is to reach at least 12% canopy cover in each of Reading’s 16 wards and achieve an overall canopy cover of at least 25% across the borough.
Since the Tree Strategy was published in 2021, Reading Borough Council has been on a positive drive forward to achieve the planting of 3,000 trees on Council land by 2030. This is part of an ongoing commitment to increase tree canopy cover and make Reading greener.
The great thing about our tree planting commitment is what a team and community effort it is. Our impressive planting rate achieved so far has been greatly bolstered by the collaborative contributions of two of the Council’s partners, Ethical Reading, and Reading Tree Wardens.
Through its Trees for Reading initiative, Ethical Reading enables businesses to fund the planting and care of trees in the parts of town where they are most needed, and Reading Tree Wardens have a warden in every ward across Reading.
They provide valuable support to the Council in looking after the borough’s trees to ensure they are surviving and flourishing. They are especially focused on monitoring new trees as they get established.
Last March a new community orchard was started in South Whitley Park, following a successful Council bid for £85,000 of grant funding from the Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities. Recently local residents and volunteers from Freely Fruity planted 50 additional fruit trees at the orchard, all donated by Freely Fruity whose ambassador, actor Winston Ellis, also came along to help with the planting.
If you’re wondering whether you can also get involved with helping make Reading greener yourself, you certainly can.
We’ve teamed up with charitable enterprise Trees for Streets to work with residents either individually or in a group, so anyone can apply to have a tree planted on their behalf as close as possible to their chosen location, such as right outside your house.
The one-off fee to sponsor a tree is £395, or £295 if you commit to watering the tree yourself.
The process is simple:
Visit www.treesforstreets.org/reading to request a location for a new tree, answer a few simple questions, and submit your sponsorship details.
The Council will survey the location to check for suitability.
If acceptable, an ‘instant-impact’ tree (normally 5-7 years old and 3-4 metres high) will be planted, during the November to April planting season.
This is a great opportunity for us to work alongside our communities to improve the town through this initiative, and for you to put your own personal touch on your street whilst benefiting you and your neighbours.
To sponsor a tree or for more information, visit www.treesforstreets.org/reading
Cllr Jason Brock is the leader of Reading Borough Council and is stepping down after the local elections
