We’re part of BBC’s Beat the Heat series

We had a great morning being filmed alongside The Woodland Trust as part of BBC's #BeatTheHeat series. 

It was great to see our #StoptheChop campaign featured again, alongside the new spectacular drone footage.

This episode focused on the importance of street trees, especially in hot urban environments, and their amazing cooling abilities. We were interviewed about how we demonstrated our tree's value to Newark and Sherwood District Council in an attempt to stop them from being chopped down.

We are so appreciative of the support of The Woodland Trust who advised us to get an independent Capital Asset Valuation of Amenity Trees (CAVAT) on the trees - one of the principal methods of tree valuation in the UK. 

Emma Oldham being interviewed by BBC EMT at Newark Library Garden

A CAVAT provides a method for managing trees as public assets rather than liabilities. It is designed not only to be a strategic tool and aid in decision-making about tree stock as a whole but also to apply to individual cases, where the value of a single tree needs to be expressed in monetary terms.

If you're fighting to protect trees from development, we highly commend getting a CAVAT done. All amenity trees provide a wide range of tangible and intangible benefits to society. These include cooling local air temperatures, intercepting rainfall and reducing air and water pollution alongside the socio-cultural ecosystem benefits of helping to make cities safer, more diverse and attractive, and wealthier. 

The show also featured our wonderful Darrell, a very dedicated volunteer, who has one of a handful of PNGS members watering neglected trees at the new Maltings site. We do this on a regular basis along with tending to unwatered trees at The Heights. These are the lengths PNGS volunteers will go to, to protect nature in our town. But the question is, why are these newly planted trees being left to die in the first place? We’re pleased to see this issue being covered by The BBC.