The Tree Council, a registered charity, is the lead UK tree campaigning partnership and is dedicated to inspiring, initiating and enabling effective action for trees in town and countryside. It is an umbrella body for over 150 organisations working together for trees — planting, caring for and enjoying them — and a forum for tackling issues relating to trees and woods. Members range from professional, non-governmental, specialist and trade organisations, including other conservation charities, to local authorities and Government bodies
National Grid Partnership
National Grid has maintained a close relationship with the Tree Council since the early 1990s. An important part of National Grid’s infrastructure maintenance programme is to manage the growth of trees near high-voltage overhead lines, underground cables and pipelines, helping to protect the public and the network by maintaining statutory safety clearances. We have planted thousands of trees, to screen our equipment and reduce its visible impact. The Tree Council provide independent expert support and advice for work in this area, and also assisted and supported National Grid in the development of an internal Vegetation and Tree Management Policy which, amongst other objectives, ensures that all activities relating to vegetation management follow environmental best practice and have regard to the maintenance of Biodiversity. With the help of the Tree Wardens, and expert advice from the Tree Council, the company works hard to manage trees in a safe and sustainable way
Our support, and subsequent leveraged funding from the Department for Communities and Local Government, is used to develop Tree Warden support materials, enabling production of regular illustrated newsletters and information packs, annual conferences/workshops for Tree Wardens, local authority staff and network co-ordinators. Through continuing support and development of the Scheme, promotion to 138 local authorities has been achieved and National Grid have hosted events involving Leaders, Chief Executives and members of staff directly involved with the Scheme from local authorities, further enhancing our working relationship with this key stakeholder audience.
The Tree Warden Scheme
The Tree Warden Scheme was founded by the Tree Council and has been co-ordinated in partnership with National Grid since 1997
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For more information please contact Sue Hughes-Payne on +44 (0)1926 655276 or
susan.hughes-payne@uk.ngrid.com