Introduction

Trees and woodland provide significant benefits to people, nature, and the environment. Ensuring that there are enough trees, in the right locations, providing the functions and services that we need, is more important now than ever before.

Climate change, the biodiversity crisis, population changes, pressure on food systems, and the factors that drive them all represent potential threats to tree populations. However, trees can also help us to meet these challenges. In order to create liveable, productive, resilient, and beautiful places for people and nature, we need trees.

The treescape of the future should not be 'accidental': a by-product of other priorities and activity. There are very few truly wild or unmanaged places, and not very many places in which growing trees is the primary purpose. Trees tend to be integrated into other land uses, and grown for the benefits they provide such as beauty, screening, habitat, placemaking, recreation or timber.

To preserve or improve the treescape, it is therefore important to anticipate where the trees of the future might grow, who will plant and maintain them, and how this activity should be organised. To create the treescape we need, we need a strategy.

A Vision and a Strategy for trees

This document sets out a long-term vision for the management of the treescape and describes what the future treescape should be like. It also describes what the Council's role in delivering this vision should be. This has been based on a review of existing duties, commitments, and policies of relevance to trees; the existing treescape; and on detailed consultation with a range of stakeholders.

Both the role of the Council, and the characteristics of the treescape must evolve to meet future needs and to deliver the vision that is set out here. This document takes what is understood about the current situation as a starting point and identifies areas for action and change, and areas in which our understanding must be improved to add texture and detail to strengthen and implement the strategy.

To help focus and facilitate implementation, five strategic objectives have been identified. These are areas which present the greatest need or opportunity for positive change.

In simple terms, these are the areas in which action taken by the Council can deliver the most benefits in the shortest time. By prioritising these objectives and focussing on these areas, the Council will work towards the overall vision. Finally, each of these objectives is described and summarised as a series of actions that can be used as the basis for implementation.

Scope of this document

The Strategy covers all trees within the Preston City Council boundary, including those in both public and private ownership. It sets out what the Council can and will do in order to deliver benefits through tree canopy cover, including through trees on land it does not own or manage directly where appropriate.

It should be noted that the Council does not own or directly control most of the land or most of the trees in the Preston City Council area. Therefore, realising important objectives like tree planting cannot be done by the Council alone, but will require collaboration with a wide range of organisations and individuals.

The Council does have a key role in leadership, regulating and consenting, as well as sometimes through direct involvement in the activities of third parties. This strategy therefore considers how the Council will pursue its strategic objectives for trees through these interactions.

This strategy covers a 15-year period. It should be reviewed and updated every 5 years to ensure that it remains current.

How should this document be used?

This document establishes a framework for action on trees with three tiers:

• The Vision;
• Strategic Objectives;
• Action Plans.

The Vision that is set out by this document is intended to organise and galvanise action on trees, including by forming the basis of a broad coalition of support. In order to convert this vision into action, it is broken down into smaller areas for focus, which take the current situation into account.

The Strategic Objectives set out by this document represent the principal areas of focus for the Council during the current period. These are broad topic areas that define the Council's approach to tree management within a topic area. They describe what changes are needed to deliver the vision, identify current opportunities, and explore actions the Council will take over the next period.

This document does not include detailed Action Plans. A high-level action plan has been produced, but this information will evolve during the life of this Strategy. Many of the actions will require further detail before they can be implemented, such as data gathering, the development of policy, or building new systems. This information is therefore not included within the Strategy in order to avoid the need for repeated updates to it.

Responsibility for actions will be allocated and further work on each will be scoped as a separate exercise.

The Vision can be thought of as the destination or the purpose of tree management. The Strategic Objectives are where the work should be done right now, and soon. Action Plans will be the fine detail describing tasks.

There are three main reasons to set out this information in the form of a Strategy document.

Firstly, setting out a strategy invites coalition, cooperation, and shared objectives, including by establishing a clear and consistent position for reference within the Council. Secondly, the Council is seeking to explore opportunities to improve what it does and to be proactive in its approach to trees. And thirdly, publishing a strategy allows accountability; not only can the actions and decisions of the Council be judged against the strategy, but by measuring progress against defined goals, the role played by the public and businesses can also be better understood.

Using the Vision

The Vision described by this document should be used as the basis for setting tone, language, and direction, and for establishing a shared narrative around tree management. It should be used to communicate what the Council is trying to achieve through its tree management, and to set policy and strategy in other areas. It should be shared, and provide a foundation for multilateral support and action.

The Council should encourage its partners to adopt and support its vision for the treescape, and build a coalition and momentum around a 'direction of travel'.

Using the Strategic Objectives

Strategic Objectives should be the basis for organising the Council's own activity. They should result in changes to internal systems, roles, resourcing, and priorities. By working in these areas, the Council will demonstrate its commitment to and delivery of the Vision. It cannot and should not deliver this alone, but the Strategic Objectives should be used to establish what part the Council should play. It should allocate responsibility and resources to the delivery of these objectives, and review progress.

Planning for Action

This strategy document goes as far as defining Actions that the Council should take but it does not include detailed plans for implementing them. Multiple solutions are available in many cases and a prescriptive approach could become outdated.

Allowing greater responsiveness and dynamism in the detail is intended to give this strategy greater resilience and longevity.

Future changes (such as to technology, funding opportunities, assessment methodologies, and other local factors) may mean that the best approach to each action may evolve. Council officers will establish the fine detail of how each action will be implemented. However, a clear line will remain between the action and its purpose, back to the overall Vision.