On the streets where we live with street tree champion and author of ‘London’s Street Trees – a Field Guide to the Urban Forest’, Paul Wood.

In our busy lives do we admire or ignore our street trees?

London is known for its London Planes but these make up less than 3% of all species of street trees in the capital. Do you know the other 97%?

Trees bring variety and colour to residential and busy roads, from the English Oaks (Quercus robur) outside Charing Cross station to a rare pear tree in Islington.

Street trees also help with shade and ‘urban cooling’ in hot weather and with preventing flooding by soaking up excess water running off our increasingly hard-surfaced and paved-over urban areas. For what it is worth, because London’s housing market is bonkers for reasons other than this, it is reckoned that tree-lined streets also boost house prices.

Locally, community groups Deptford Folk, Culverley Green Residents Association and the Brockley Society’s ‘Street Trees for Living’ project are working to put in more street trees and Mayor Sadiq Khan is helping communities to put in street trees and do more tree-planting to increase London’s tree cover from 20 to 25% by 2025.

The capital’s street tree champion, Paul Wood, will reveals the often ignored world of street trees and sign copies of his book London’s Street Trees – a Field Guide to the Urban Forest.

More info: The Street Tree

London’s Street Tree online map

More info on the QWAG meeting – On the streets where we live, click here