It’s been a while since our last update on the latest tree news, a lot has changed since February. As many of you will know, we had a number of planting events lined up for the end of March which unfortunately had to be cancelled. So I want to start by saying a big thank you to a small group of Trees for Derby volunteers who used their daily exercise to take part in some socially distant tree planting before the end of the season. The team are also continuing to check on trees where we can during prolonged dry spells.

Trying to connect her community to the nature around them, this forestry school practitioner has been writing the names and descriptions of trees on the pavement in chalk, for people to see during their daily exercise. What a lovely idea.

The UK have brought in new restrictions on the import of Olive trees, coffee, almond and rosemary shrubs amongst others to restrict the spread of bacterium Xylella fastidiosa. Xylella is a threat to a number of our native species including oak and elm trees. Click here to read more.

Trees can be one of three sexes – monecious (both male and female), dioecious male or dioecious female. The ratio of sexes planted in one place can have a big impact on people with mainly male trees playing havoc with hay fever sufferers. Click here for more information.

Trees are not the solution to improving air quality in our cities, we all know we need to get more gas guzzling vehicles off the road, but they do play a vital role in minimising pollutants in the air we breathe. Here’s an article published on the BBC’s new Future Planet pages, which looks at the part trees play in reducing air pollution and the research looking into the best species for the job. If you’re interested in reading a little more in depth about the subject here is a link to a recently published article in Nature

A little further afield, Canadian based start-up Flash Forest, plan to use drones to plant 40,000 trees this month in an area north of Toronto. Trying to plant a lot of trees, whilst minimising cost and time and importantly at the moment the need for human contact, Flash Forest aim to have planted 1 billion native tree seeds by 2028. These little seedlings will take a long time to grow but the drone teams will return to the areas they plant periodically to check on their progress. Click here to read more.