Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 6 November 2025.
Alex Mayer
Labour, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on the maintenance of newly planted trees during the first 12 months after planting.
Mary Creagh
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Forest Research has produced an Urban Tree manual that provides advice on selecting and procuring the right tree for the right place in urban areas. It also highlights long-term issues of the threats to existing trees from pests, disease and climate change, and describes the benefits to the environment and for well-being that urban trees can provide. This is available at Urban Tree Manual - Forest Research. The UK Government has also funded the Caring for Newly Planted Trees guidance, published by the Tree Council.
Other guidance is also provided by the Forestry Commission, for example through the England Woodland Creation Offer maintenance support and more general guidance on protecting newly planted trees, including Tree Establishment and Management on the Climate Change Hub and guidance on maintaining new trees after restocking.
Yes2 people think so
No2 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
