Trees planted by councils die after 'rush job to show off green credentials'

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Local authorities spend more than £11m of taxpayers' cash on schemes but often fail to record survival rate

Millions in taxpayer money has been spent to plant trees that may not have survived, according to analysis of council data by the Telegraph.

At least 80 local authorities are failing to record whether trees planted to help climate change are surviving, despite them spending more than £11 million in council and central Government funds.

Others report survival rates well below expected, with some projects leaving no trees alive amid concern that planting schemes are being undertaken without adequate expertise.

Experts say a survival rate of 90-95 per cent should be expected if tree-planting schemes are well planned and have adequate aftercare.

The high rates of failure, and lack of monitoring, among local authority schemes raise concerns that money is being wasted on rushed planting projects. Some local authorities said failed trees would be replaced, requiring additional resources and manpower.

The deaths of trees planted for carbon offsetting purposes also raises concerns that councils and businesses may be able to greenwash their pollution, by claiming to have offset their emissions with trees that do not survive.

The Government has pledged more than £9 million to plant hundreds of thousands of trees in communities across England, to help hit its targets of 30,000 hectares of new woodland annually across the UK by 2025.

But Andy Egan, the head of conservation policy for the Woodland Trust, which provides grant funding for council tree planting schemes, said local authorities often lacked the resources to look after newly planted trees.

“Too many local authorities lack the additional resources and capacity needed to look after newly planted trees and to help them survive conditions like the drought we had this summer,” he said. “Equally poor planning practice is putting many much-loved mature trees at risk.”

“The Woodland Trust is calling on Government to use its Environmental Improvement Plan to ensure the long-term investment that’s needed to protect and care for our urban trees is in place.”

Progress report is due

Under the Environmental Improvement Plan, which will report annually from next year, the Government is expected to set out what progress has been made on improvements to the natural environment.

The Telegraph asked councils what tree planting schemes had been undertaken to help tackle climate change, help reach net zero or improve air quality.

More than a quarter of those that replied said they had no record of how many trees had survived from various tree planting schemes dating back to 2015.

The Greater London Authority, which has spent £6 million on more than over 430,000 new trees since Sadiq Khan became mayor in 2016, said it did not have records on how many had survived.

A spokesman said recipients of grants were required to replace trees lost within three years, but said the GLA would “continue to review how we can improve and monitor our successful tree planting programmes”.

Brighton and Hove has spent more £400,000 planting hundreds of trees to help the city become carbon neutral by 2030, but does not have records of their survival.

Friends of the Earth, the conservation group, said tree loss can be reduced to 5 per cent with community involvement in after care. This includes checking plants are getting adequate water and sunlight.

Mike Childs, head of science, policy & research at Friends of the Earth, said: “Some mortality is to be expected when planting trees, but a lack of proper aftercare can mean the proportion dying is much higher.

“Local authorities are right to keep investing in planting as trees are so important to nature and mental health. At the same time, the Government’s tree action plan needs to scale up ambition, improve its strategy, and ultimately understand that planting new trees is about more than sticking saplings in the ground and hoping they will survive by ensuring long-term aftercare plans are in place and properly funded.”

Several councils reported significant damage as a result of this year’s drought. Wyre Council reported that 6,000 young trees that were planted on a disused tip site in the council control died during the “exceptional heat”, amounting to 60 per cent of those planted.

In one scheme in East Staffordshire, hundreds of saplings planted as carbon offsets by local businesses were destroyed by vandalism. The council said they would be replaced by a significantly smaller number of mature trees.

Planting at wrong time of year

In another scheme in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, just 10 per cent of 6,500 trees were estimated to have survived after being planted in spring this year on a former waste site.

Charlie Gardner, a conservationist at the University of Kent, surveyed the site at King’s Lynn independently and concluded that planting had taken place at the wrong time of year, and with little aftercare. “I was shocked to see the state of it, I couldn't believe how bad a job they’d done,” he said. “Planting in May is madness anyway, but they could at least have made sure they planted the roots properly.”

“The whole thing seems like a rush job, done for show instead of making sure it’s done properly.”

“It's such a shame because they've wasted lots of money and missed out on an opportunity to do something really beneficial."

King’s Lynn said it had replaced 1,000 whips earlier this month and would check on their progress.

Richard Benwell, CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “It’s vital that local authorities have the investment and expertise they need to plan, protect and maintain woodland and trees properly.

He added: “This is all the more vital in the context of private markets for carbon or nutrient offsets, where poorly planned tree planting can provide a fig leaf for continuing pollution or development.

“Trees and woodlands need to be a sustainable part of a resilient ecosystem, with plenty of buffer built in for those occasions where trees may be lost.”