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Online Map Shows Where 1.2 Million Trees Are Being Planted in Surrey

Published on: 17 Mar, 2021
Updated on: 19 Mar, 2021

An online map has been launched by the county council showing where new trees and hedges are thriving as part of the Surrey-wide drive to plant 1.2 million trees.

The campaign, started in 2019, aims to plant one tree for every resident by 2030, supporting the council target to be net carbon zero by 2050. More than 40,000 trees and 6,000 hedges have been planted already.

The map will track progress, showing location and quantity planted, along with information such as who planted the tree, the species and date of planting.

Cllr Natalie Bramhall

Cllr Natalie Bramhall (Con, Redhill West & Meadvale), is SCC cabinet member for Environment and Climate Change. She said: “Trees bring a fantastic range of benefits, from absorbing carbon dioxide, helping to mitigate flooding, reducing noise pollution and providing a habitat for wildlife.

“Over the past year, we’ve invested £100,000 in planting trees for the benefit of residents and I look forward to this brilliant initiative continuing.”

The council is working with districts and boroughs as well as nature organisations such as the Woodland Trust, schools and businesses.

Tree-planting season runs from October to March, weather dependent, and to launch the most recent season, the council helped schools encourage children to plant trees.

Throughout National Tree Week last December, 265 trees and 224 hedge packs were sent to 91 schools across the county.

Tony Mould, forest school leader at Audley Primary School, Caterham, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for our pupils to learn about trees, empowering them to make a difference and become custodians of our school grounds.”

Trees have been planted at the request of residents, with commitment by individuals and communities to look after the saplings in the initial stages, including watering during the warmer summer months. And residents are to be asked to identify further opportunities for shaping and delivering the programme.

You can see the online tree map here. If you want to get involved in tree-planting next season, the website will be updated regularly.

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Responses to Online Map Shows Where 1.2 Million Trees Are Being Planted in Surrey

  1. Howard Watson Reply

    March 17, 2021 at 6:24 pm

    For a balanced view why do they not publish on hhe same map all the trees and hedgerows that are being cut down or ripped out?

  2. Ramsey Nagaty Reply

    March 18, 2021 at 9:40 pm

    I agree that trees and hedges of the right varieties planted in the correct places can be of great benefit in providing homes for wildlife, cleaning the air, providing shade and reducing flooding. There are many benefits.

    Yet while the National Parties bemoan deforestation in Brazil and the Far East the rules and regulations they enact allow, on a smaller scale, similar devastation to trees, green belt and the countryside.

    Ramsey Nagaty is leader of the Guildford Greenbelt Group and a borough councillor for Shalford.

  3. M Durant Reply

    March 21, 2021 at 12:38 am

    They have cut a lot of trees in the Chantries. Perfectly healthy trees have been cut down; sometimes along the river, sometimes around the town. There really should be a law preventing unnecessary tree felling by councils. It’s happening all-round the country. We have lost large areas of the countryside around Guildford (all the area around the university and in Burpham) years ago.

    I hope that Guildford will not become just another suburb of London with high pollution levels and buildings.

  4. J Ashton Reply

    March 21, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    It is great to see this positive initiative. Alongside the mature trees we already have, this project will certainly help provide clean air to the immediate area.

    Given we have an air pollution problem already and a large number of residents struggling with covid and long covid, it seems vital we all make the air we breathe as clean as possible.

  5. Julia Shaw Reply

    March 23, 2021 at 10:10 am

    I welcome the nine trees planted in Jacobs Well, where I live. They are lovely and just what we all need.

    But the council has just chopped down 228 (according to the planning application) mature trees in the field behind our village hall to build the North Moor allotments. This is so the Bellfields allotments can be relocated here to allow 1,550 homes to be built on the Weyside development behind Slyfield.

    So we are actually down by 219 trees in my local area. The SCC map should show this.

  6. Jules Cranwell Reply

    March 24, 2021 at 7:44 am

    Mature trees are being felled by the hundreds in the Horsleys, as a result of the despised Tory Local Plan.

    Surely, the sane approach would be to protect mature trees, rather than plant saplings, which take many years to develop.

    Julia is right, it is misleading to show only newly planted trees, rather than the net loss.

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