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Manchester values its trees, and the City Council is more committed than ever to looking after one of our most valuable natural resources. Trees make a fantastic contribution to Manchester, adding to the City’s beauty and contributing significantly to people’s quality of life. They are incredibly beneficial to wildlife, and feature prominently as priority habitats and species of the Biodiversity Strategy. We aim to become Britain’s Greenest City, and a key part of achieving this is by demonstrating our commitment to Manchester’s trees.
The Manchester Tree and Woodland Strategy will act as a catalyst for action, setting out a long-term vision to promote and manage trees better and give them strong and robust protection.
The Strategy aims to secure a long –term future for our trees and woodlands, providing the right management and strong protection for generations to come.
The people of Manchester have been vocal in their concern for the City’s trees. For the hundreds of representatives of friends groups, community groups and voluntary organisations, as well as private businesses and environmental organisations, the management and protection of our trees has always been an emotive subject.
Following on from the Community Network for Manchester’s trees sub –group, The Manchester Tree Conference in September 2005 provided an opportunity for people to discuss the future of Manchester’s trees and woodland. 63 representatives attended the event from a range of public, private and voluntary organisations. During the day, the delegates participated in workshops in which they discussed the most important considerations for a citywide tree audit, what should be included in the tree strategy and what its goals should be.
Over 600 points were raised, issues noted and ideas provided. A complete report of all points raised in the conference was produced. The results were then thoroughly appraised and grouped into categories. These were eventually condensed into four main themes– involving and engaging people, planting more trees , managing our trees and protecting them.
These themes provide the structure for the main objectives of the strategy. These objectives form the basis for a five year Action Plan, the delivery of which will begin once the strategy was formally adopted by the City Council’s Executive Committee.
On 26th July 2006, the Strategy was formally approved at Executive, making it one of the fastest produced tree strategies in the Country. The hard work in realising the Action Plan is well underway.
 Click here to download the strategy as a pdf file need new link
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