Wirral Tree Wardens
Our Projects.
we have meetings every second month to plan activities. These are normally held at the "Garden Church" in Serpentine Road, Wallasey. Meetings are open to all supporters and enable us to respond to new ideas and immediate concerns. When we resume face-to-face meetings, you'll find dates in the calendar of events. If you have any item to bring to a meeting, please use the contact page link.
Project 1. Tree Seed Collection
Tree wardens collect seeds of trees in the autumn, often involving communities and schools.
Wirral Tree Wardens helped Cheshire Wildlife Trust contribute to the Millennium Seed Bank, a joint intiative of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) and the Forestry Commission. This took large samples of seeds of different local populations of trees for storage and research. As more waves of tree diseases spread and affect groups of native trees, it is vital that seeds of trees which have established in micro-environments are retained so, for example, any discovered to be resistant to diseases can be used to re-establish tree communities.
Project 2. Keeping an eye on the local treescapes
We have around 5 queries a month about trees that are under threat from development or inappropriate treatment. If there's an immediate threat, let us know, but also you can contact the Tree Protection Officer of Wirral Council at this e-mail: or use this link to find out how tree protection orders work.
We are still working with other conservation groups and members of WIT to keep under review the Wirral Strategy for Trees Hedgerows and Woodlands, which we devised together and with Wirral Borough Council.
IIn the last 3 years, we have been collecting surplus trees grown from seed to keep as a bank of suitable trees for planting in Wirrals streets, parks and other public places. We devised several sustainable ways of doing this, with due observance of guidelines and rules over social distance and mixing of households, so there are a lot of homes, schools, offices and community centres with handsful of trees in pots , growbags or heeled in, that can be looked after by one or two people. Many members of the public in Wirral, Cheshire, Liverpool, Flintshire and beyond have adopted or fostered these young trees until a suitable time for community planting.
Project 3. propagation & planting of trees which suit the area
We need a great many more trees in UK, both for our health and well-being, for a balanced environment, for wildlife, to ameliorate the effects of global warming, urban heat islands, particulates and carbon in the atmosphere, for enjoyment, recreation and a delight to the senses. But it has to be the right trees in the right places, in the right conditions, so it's never easy to keep trees uncritically or just plant more. We are planting up community orchards, story tree circles and specimen trees in parks, schools, community venues, choosing varieties which suit and this is done in consultation with advice from the Orchard Network, Tree Council and Wildlife Trusts. Sometimes it's better to plant shelterbelts, edible hedgerows or maintain heathland, scrub or woodland margins for wildlife. Sometimes it's very special trees that are needed to maintain or replace existing populations, especially in areas like local nature reserves or SSIs or to replace trees that are threatened by imported pests and diseases. Wherever possible, we prefer to increase the tree population through natural regeneration, giving space for trees to spread, seeds to set, seedlings to grow and removal of barriers to growth.