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The value of trees on the highway - successful bid to Rees Jeffreys Road Fund

ADEPT, with support of the Rees Jefferys Road Fund, is looking to develop an approach for local authorities to adopt, when re-establishing trees on the highway within both the urban and rural landscapes.

£25,000 has been secured from the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund to fund the approach and Leicestershire County Council, who are leading on the project on behalf of ADEPT, are now looking to appoint an organisation who will be able to partner with us to carry this work forward.

The approach will consider the impact that Ash Dieback (and other new/emerging pests and diseases) is having on the highway network, producing a practical guide to support authorities in restabilising and growing their tree stock on the existing network and new developments. 

It will consider the need for future planting to be both resilient to climate change whilst having a low impact on maintaining the highway network.  It will also take into account the differing requirements of the urban environment and rural locations and reflect the different benefits and ecosystem services provided by trees.

The project’s outputs will be:

  • a matrix that establishes individual species natural service provision against their positive and negative attributes
  • a criterion for locality and density management etc. for trees on the highway (stock density)
  • developing process of how we value these in terms of amenity, biodiversity and carbon that can be built into business cases.  Providing evidence to justify potentially expanding forestry budgets for planting/maintenance and to enable these costs to be including in new schemes
  • evaluating and recommending methods for incorporating trees into the street scene to ensure successful growth and harmony with other highways infrastructure.

We are hoping that the results of the project will be available for use early next year. 

If you believe your organisation may be interested or would like to be involved in this project, please contact Louise Bennett ([email protected]) who will be able to provide further information and answer any queries you may have.

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