Create an urban forest master plan

Use your insights from the ‘discover’ stage to focus in further and define your challenge in a different way. Can you identify the top-down factors that could prevent you from increasing canopy cover (e.g. lack of dedicated decision-making time for urban trees in the public realm)? Or are there bottom-up factors that could enhance your capacity to plant trees (e.g. empowering more community organisations to establish tree planting initiatives)? 

Again, collaboration is key here. At this stage you may want to consider working with a smaller group of core partners. Don’t restrict yourself to internal departments as external perspectives can be useful at this point too. 

Now you have a clear idea of what your challenge is, you can think creatively about potential solutions that could work for your place. 

Don’t restrict your thinking at this stage. Look at examples of best practice, collaborate and co-design solutions with a range of experts and residents and consider some of our thought starters: 

• Produce a strategy – read how Belfast City Council and Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council created their urban tree strategies for inspiration, or use the Tree Council’s Trees and Woodlands Strategy Toolkit 

• Co-create a statement of intent – informed by relevant local policies and with input from a broad range of internal departments and external partners 

• Establish a baseline – understand what you’ve already got, including the quantity, quality and economic value of your tree stock  

• Forecast future canopy trends – understanding the investment required to build a case for investment 

• Consider governance arrangements – set up a tree board that includes relevant decision-makers, influential and interested parties, community organisations and residents 

• Map planting opportunities and create a costed delivery plan – you can use Treeconomics’ and Woodland Trust’s planting target calculator at this link. Treeconomics have tested an opportunity mapping methodology using GIS. Remember to complement these tools with community intelligence 

• Develop an external partnership ambition and plan – read our guide on how local authorities can build partnerships to maximise a broad range of benefits, including a partnership assessment tool 

• Create protocols, procedures and databases for monitoring success 

• Produce public-facing systems – to gather community requests, complaints and input (e.g. Street Trees for Living’s Grow Back Together platform) 

• Create procurement plans – e.g. develop relationships with local or regional nurseries to enable supply of high-quality trees 

Now that you have a list of potential solutions on the table, you can consolidate them into a plan that will improve your tree equity. 

It’s important to look at your resources. Research suggests that you should aim to allocate a third of your funds to comprehensive planning on a project level. Ensure you have enough funding or consider how you can attract new funding streams.