Chelsea Flower Show 2010: Urban biodiversity

May 24, 2010 - PRLog -- This is one of the questions urban tree planting charity Trees for Cities will be asking visitors at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, in a questionnaire about our knowledge of biodiversity in built-up areas.

Trees for Cities will undertake its Urban Biodiversity Survey at the Bradstone Biodiversity Garden which designer Paul Hervey-Brookes has created as the finale to his year as scholar on the Chris Beardshaw mentoring scholarship.

The United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, and it is essential for sustaining natural ecosystems and for providing us with food, fuel and resources.  

Trees for Cities’ projects director Katie Roberts said: “Planting native trees is an extremely valuable way of ensuring the biodiversity in our cities can continue to thrive in the environment it has adapted to over centuries.

“Trees in towns and cities, whether on streets, in woodland or in parks, gardens, schools or hospitals, provide a wealth of benefits relating to biodiversity and health.  They help support a great variety of wildlife.  Many of these species are still relatively common - robins, blackbirds are easily recognized by children from nursery rhymes - but some, such as bats and bees, are in decline.”  

Underpinning all Trees for Cities’ projects is the key benefit of planting, promoting and protecting trees to support this biodiversity. Urban trees are under threat through climate change and the stresses of survival in heavily populated areas, making them especially important as providers of habitat for urban biodiversity.  

This year Trees for Cities is delivering an exciting range of projects with biodiversity and wildlife value: collaborating on the Ancient Tree Hunt, the Trees for Cities Edible Playground Project at Rotherfield School in Islington, in addition to Paul Hervey-Brookes’ Biodiversity Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.

The UN General Assembly dedicated the International Year of Biodiversity in the wake of failures to meet agreed targets to stem biodiversity loss, which were set out at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

The survey can also be taken online at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/56HXGB9.

In total the charity has planted 200,000 trees worldwide on streets, in parks, local woodlands and community projects, and is involved in a five year project run by the Woodland Trust to record the UK’s oldest and most notable trees by 2011. The database held at www.AncientTreeHunt.org.uk is the first living record of the UK’s oldest trees ever attempted.



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For further information, contact Stephen Gray, stephen.gray@treesforcities.org, 020 7820 4428 or Inna Costantini, 0207 587 1320


Notes to Editors

Trees for Cities is an independent charity which plants trees and landscapes public spaces in urban areas. The charity’s vision is to stimulate a tree planting renaissance in cities around the world that will impact on global warming and beautify the urban landscape, as well as encouraging greater social cohesion through the active participation of local people. A special effort is made to involve children and young people in all of the projects. The public can get involved by sponsoring trees, registering as a volunteer, enrolling in training programmes, taking part in the annual Tree-Athlon and going to fundraising parties – see www.treesforcities.org for more information.

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An independent charity which plants trees and landscapes public spaces in urban areas, to impact on global warming and beautify the urban landscape, encouraging greater social cohesion through the active participation of local people.