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Tree Wardens are volunteers linked to parish councils or other community organisations who gather information about their local trees, get involved in local tree matters and organise local projects related to trees and woods.
The Tree Council launched the Tree Warden Scheme in 1990 and co-ordinates the Scheme nationally. It works with local authorities, voluntary organisations, parish councils and local partnerships to set up and develop Tree Warden networks – in town, city and countryside.
Today there are many thousands of Tree Wardens in local networks throughout the UK, forming a volunteer force of immense value to the environment. Together, they devote nearly two million volunteer hours a year to trees – time worth about £13 million.
Tree Wardens have been caring for the trees of Suffolk since the Tree Council scheme began, with Mid Suffolk being one of the first districts to join the national scheme. By 2017 there were around 120 tree wardens in Suffolk although with some areas having more than others.
Due to recent changes in the way local government works and the reduction of allocated resource, the Suffolk Tree Warden Network was formally established in 2017 to encourage and coordinate tree wardens across the county. It aims to have at least one tree warden in every town, parish or group of small parishes. The network (STWN) is now a self-managed organisation of volunteers linked directly to parish councils, although it does also have continued support from The Tree Council and Suffolk County Council, as well as Babergh/Mid Suffolk and East Suffolk district councils.
In Babergh/Mid Suffolk, there are about 90 Tree Wardens divided into 11 sub-areas each with a local Tree Warden coordinator covering more than half the total of 200 parishes. The intention is to create local networks of Tree Wardens enabling individual wardens to be part of a group rather than leave them feeling isolated. They will be able to meet and call on each other for mutual support, exchange ideas and knowledge and feed-back needs for training, funding and other required help, to the STWN executive committee.
The situation in the adjoining districts is very different. There are currently about 24 Tree Warden contacts in East Suffolk and only 7 in West Suffolk. It is hoped that once a good network of Tree Wardens has been established in Babergh/Mid Suffolk the other two districts will follow.
If you appreciate and value the trees in your parish and would be prepared to commit a little time and effort to ensuring their continued presence, please contact the Tree Warden for Stratford St Mary.
Brian Such Telephone 01206 323 091, e-mail: briansuch@btinternet.com
The UK Ancient Tree Inventory
Mapping the oldest and most important trees in the UK.
They can live for hundreds of years. And there are more of them in the UK than many other European countries.
Help protect our valuable tree heritage. Let us know if you see any ancient or old trees and put them on the map. There are already 160,000 trees listed but there are thousands more to add. We need your help to find them.
Visit: https://ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/
A number of historical mapping layers have been added to the Norfolk Trees and Hedges Explorer:
See:
https://norfolkcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=bc454c4b70bc481fbcd7bf11adeea099
If you open the Layer List you will see the tick boxes that control the visibility for these new layers
The historic mapping layers can be viewed as backdrops to the contemporary tree and hedge cover enabling a detailed review of tree and hedge loss over the last 200 years.
We have also added a layer that tells you when the tree and hedge data was captured; this layer is called ‘Norfolk_Suffolk_Survey_Index’.
If you have any comments on these improvements please send them to gis@norfolk.gov.uk
Best wishes
Daniel Voisey, Data Engineer
Information Management & Technology
Tel: 01603 973457
Level 4, Carrow House