Looking after our WORLD

Two women talk about their efforts to help better the environment

- SERENA SHORES

‘Planting trees helps us to be proud of our neighbourhoods’

Samantha Powell, 54, works as a town planner and lives in west London.

It was 2020 and I wanted to volunteer for an environmental charity that friends could donate to. I noticed a tree-planting event for Trees for Cities at Hackney Marshes in east London and went along. It was such a positive atmosphere and once I saw the group's work, I wanted to get involved regularly.

The charity has been working to improve the lives of people in towns and cities through planting urban trees and revitalising forgotten areas for over 30 years. In 2021, I trained to become one of Trees for Cities' volunteer planting supervisors. Teaching people how to plant trees that survive and managing the large groups of locals keen to help, I attend planting days run from October to March, and ampart of an army of volunteer staff who are out there come rain or shine.

Chatting about nature to the enthusiastic kids and adults who arrive decked out in raincoats and sturdy boots is as important as the painstaking work of planting for the future of the planet.

Before any planting project, Trees for Cities' Urban Forest Team do a site survey to see what species might be suitable to create a woodland or avenue, extend hedgerows, or plant fruit and nut trees for wildlife. We often plant up to 2,500 whips, which are very small trees, in one session. A square hole is dug, the plant is inserted and soil backfilled with lots of mulch, which keeps it damp, supplies nutrients and protects the roots from frost and hot weather.