Planting Additional Street Trees in the NESST area

In the mid 1850’s George Wostenhome had a long-term vision for the Nether Edge area, which included streets lined with large trees. Thanks to that vision, more than 150 years later, the area is one of the leafiest urban areas in the whole UK, with residents, visitors and wildlife all benefiting in so many ways from that historic vision.

We want to build on George Wostenhome’s vision. We want to fill the gaps in the street tree canopy in Nether Edge, and also extend this street tree canopy into the surrounding areas of Sharrow, Sharrow Vale and Carter Knowle.

There are currently around 2300 street trees in these areas, and by walking every one of the streets in this area, we estimate that there is sufficient space to more than double that number to around 4700 street trees. This will significantly increase the overall tree canopy cover in the area, significantly increasing the ecosystem services and many other environmental benefits.

Importantly there is an equality aspect to this too, as the number of street trees currently tends to be higher on streets with higher income and wealth. The vision is to have street trees wherever there is space to do so, regardless of the income or wealth of the street.

We want to achieve this aim over the next 15 years to 2037, so we estimate that we'll need to raise around £112,000 a year from various sources, (or £1.7 million by the year 2037).

Based on the latest environmental evaluation methods, our conservative estimate that the £1.7 million investment will result in street tree "assets" valued at £39.6 million in 75 years time.

Have no doubts about it, this is a long term investment in our area, for the benefit of our children and grandchildren, as well as the wildlife.

Please donate generously to our amazing long term vision.

UPDATE - The first year of this project successfully raised sufficient funds to plant 35 trees, and these were planted in early 2022. This 1.3% increase in the local street tree stock was the first increase in over 50 years. Please keep donating!