Volunteer to help keep our young trees healthy this summer

A new community-led initiative, Friends of Street Trees, is looking to recruit volunteers to help water street trees in our neighbourhoods during the warmer months.

In Richmond upon Thames, we’re fortunate to be surrounded by thousands of beautiful trees that provide immense benefits to our communities, from improving our air quality and shading us during the hot months, to boosting physical and mental wellbeing through a connection to nature.

During the most recent planting season alone, over 800 trees were planted within our highways, parks and open spaces. As summer approaches, it is essential that our young trees are supported to thrive during the hot, dry months, as the number one cause of tree mortality for street trees in England is lack of water.

This is much more likely to happen with support from the whole community, and that’s where Friends of Street Trees comes in!

The new local community group, run by a small team of volunteers, aims to coordinate the support of local people keen to help water the trees on their streets.

There are a couple of ways you can get involved:

• Volunteer to keep an eye on and water just one tree on your street a few times a week. This only requires two large watering cans per tree, and you can even use collected rainwater or ‘grey water’ (for example, bath or washing-up water). If you would like to help with watering a tree but don’t have any nearby, Friends of Street Trees may be able to find a tree for you
• If you have a bit more time and want to get involved further, you could also volunteer to be a street rep and seek to get your neighbours involved so the whole street can take part. 

Find out more about Friend of Street Trees.

In our borough, there are about eight people for every public tree – and even more if you only consider street trees! Together, we can make sure they stay well cared for and looked after for our shared benefit.