Business owner prosecuted for damaging protected tree - www.bristol247.com/climate/news... 'Every breach of planning which goes unchallenged sends the message that planning rules are effectively unenforceable and this is an affront to justice.'

We have just launched our Annual Tree Giveaway 2025/26 - bristoltreeforum.org/2025/12/29/b.... Please spread the word.

In its Information Statement of October 2025 concerning its recent fencing works at Stoke Lodge Playing Fields, Cotham School has chosen to misunderstand our concerns about the welfare of the trees at Stoke Lodge Playing Fields. Here is our response: bristoltreeforum.org/2025/10/23/c...

Paul Wood's excellent book - Tree Hunting - 1,00 Trees to Find in Britain and Ireland's Towns and Cities has just landed - thestreettree.com/.../tree-hun... WeI particularly appreciated this section in the Bristol Section about the tree at the sadly-now-closed Bristol Zoo Gardens site.

UK government admits almost no evidence nature protections block development www.theguardian.com/environment/...

@bristolgreenparty.bsky.social @bristoltreeforum.bsky.social hi, why are a Green Party led council allowing 40 mature trees to be felled in BS3 today?

Our request for trees on Yew Tree Farm to be protected with a TPO has been successful - as per this Pinpoint image - maps.bristol.gov.uk/pinpoint/ - (using an old 2016 aerial image). Here are the trees we have mapped - bristoltrees.space/Tree/sitecod...

Green Party calls on Labour to rule out building on Brislington Meadows: bristolgreenparty.org.uk/green-party-... Thanks for your support. However, Brislington Meadows has been an SNCI for years and has never lost its status. We pointed this out ad nauseam before and during the appeal.

Bristol's nature is being exported to far-away rural fields before our eyes. We need to stop this. We have submitted a question to the Environment and Sustainability Policy Committee when it meets on 29 May 2025: bristoltreeforum.org/wp-content/u...

‘... the trees taking longer to remove than anticipated due to the strength of their roots ...’ Who’d have thought! The trees were perfectly sound and stable and should never have been removed. Such vainglorious folly! www.bristol247.com/news-and-fea...

Now is the time to get the Heritage Trees Bill turned into law bills.parliament.uk/publications... We must try t stop this happening again.

The illegal felling of the Whitewebbs Oak hashtag#whitewebbsoak www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtp...

The illegal felling of the Whitewebbs Oak hashtag#whitewebbsoak www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQtp...

Brislington Meadows - Homes England Announcement: Keepmoat has now been appointed as the developer for Brislington Meadows. They will now prepare a Reserved Matters planning application. It is anticipated that work will start on-site in 2026.

High Court ruling declares farming manure as ‘waste’ in major victory for River Action in its fight against industrial-scale poultry production in Wye Valley riveractionuk.com/high-court-r...

Fine words are not enough, @bristolcouncil.bsky.social. There needs to be action! www.natureemergency.com/councils/bri... @bristolgreenparty.bsky.social @bristollibdems.bsky.social @labourbristol.bsky.social

This is very sad and all because the previous council and small minded ass covering council officers had no imaginations for future development and reuse of a cemetery. They could have designed like in parts of Europe or New Orleans. Instead the UK's "greenest city" destroys its last farm.

Could there be any worse news 😞 www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol....

The best view in Bristol - www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...

Developers Rule! It looks like the Local plan examination hearings are going to be almost exclusively driven by developers: www.bristol.gov.uk/residents/pl... This is probably the most important decision to be made in the city for the next 10 years, yet the community is silent.

The grant for the Baltic Wharf development in Hotwells has been published. The s106 agreement is a disaster! They seem to have lost nearly £300K for starters - bristoltreeforum.org/wp-content/u.... We have pointed this and other issues out to the Council…but will they listen?

Good to see some early light cast on BNG schemes, which already look like an unfolding scandal, or likely to be shit-canned by our growth obsessed government. If done properly could it be transformational, but it's ripe for cheating. More useful BNG commentary at @bristoltreeforum.bsky.social

A scheme requiring developers to boost nature when they build - known as biodiversity net gain - has only delivered a fraction of expected new habitat in its first year, campaigners say www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Why? I’m completely stumped!

Our updated analysis of the use of Biodiversity Gain Sites for offsetting habitats lost to development is as we feared. The trend is not encouraging; it looks like it will result in local nature, especially in urban settings, becoming hollowed out. bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/25/r....

What a perfect day to plant a new forest! 🌳

Latest analysis shows that, in Bristol, following the 24/00954/F grant at BS11 0YS, these habitats were exported to Biodiversity Gain Site BGS-290224001 which is outside Lewes, 123 miles away: Heathland and shrub - Mixed scrub, 0.07 ha Woodland and forest - Lowland mixed deciduous woodland, 0.28 ha.

I’m going to walk today between Putney and Hammersmith @thamespathnt.bsky.social @barnescommon.bsky.social It’s a lovely stretch of river and the start of the boat race Come with me @samwalksalot.bsky.social @walking-class-hero.bsky.social @walksincamera.bsky.social we’ll see some great trees 🌳

Interesting analysis by Mark @bristoltreeforum.bsky.social looking at the biodiversity gain policy. If ever there was a policy ripe for gaming by developers, this is it. Austerity has left the UK chronically under resourced & I suspect developers know this. bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/25/r...

Redevelopment of central Bristol was an incompetent mess from day one they never got right. We lost all the grass and flowers for a shitty concrete fountain. Now more incompetence and the trees which were the only good thing about it are being ripped up.

And so they are gone...never to return. Everyday nature, so easily overlooked, then swept away.

Is the opportunity for local offsetting of BNG being lost? bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/25/r...

Who would have thought there there could be such an interesting collection of trees in the heart of Bristol at Quakers Friars. Sadly, they have been undervalued with this latest proposed public realm improvement works - bristoltreeforum.org/wp-content/u....

So far, 41 biodiversity gain sites have been registered in England - 1,117.21 hectares of various habitat types that have been made available for offsetting habitat loss caused by development. But is this a missed opportunity for local offsetting - bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/25/r....

A village betrayed - fury in LA as the Americans are coming. I don’t think I’ve come across a more furious reaction to a planning decision for a long time. Have a read 👇🏼 www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol...

Yet again - A lack of joined up thinking in ecological planning. One of the key goals of the @WestofEnglandCA Local Nature Recovery Strategy will fail to deliver for Bristol bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/17/t...

Beavers confirmed at the Warleigh (Bath) land Protect Earth is buying. Nibbled trees old and new, and one scent mount spotted. Thank you Beaver Trust! Excited to improve the habitat and get the beavers out of the river onto a new wetland they’ll be co-designing with us.

Yet again - A lack of joined up thinking in ecological planning. One of the key goals of the @WestofEnglandCA Local Nature Recovery Strategy will fail to deliver for Bristol bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/17/t...

Without permission, last October, Bristol City Council destroyed habitat on its cemetery expansion land at Yew Tree Farm in breach of its planning approval. Planning Enforcement refuse to take any action save for monitoring. There are no plans to restore the lost habitat.

In early 2020, a pandemic was spreading. The UK’s PM went on a 10 day half-term holiday during which he was uncontactable and the government went into panic mode, focusing, as Hancock related to the COVID enquiry, on buying enough body bags. 1/8

We are told the money for offsetting has already been paid. How much? To whom? When? Where is it now?

@bristoltreeforum.bsky.social Just read that five tall plane trees by the fountains in Bristol centre being ‘replaced’ by tiny Judas trees. What’s the justification for small exogenous species - climate change? Surely then, tall trees with big crowns to drink flood water, protect from hot sun, etc?

When the Council cleaned up the pollution on Temple Island, 1.4 ha of Priority Open Mosaic habitat, which has high habitat value, was destroyed - who knew Brownfield land could be such an important habitat! Now it must find 1.6 ha to offset this loss. bristoltreeforum.org/wp-content/u....

🚨 Tree Planting Crisis 🚨 Planting 11,500 trees next week and our usually reliable supplier cannot come through. We have no wooden stakes or guards. Does anyone have a few thousand spares knocking around? Can pay and pick up. Site is north Wales (Nannerch). @northwaleswt.bsky.social

The government has issued a Planning Reform Working Paper inviting views on proposed provisions in the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill relating to environmental protection and improvement - assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675db3... The proposals are summarised in paragraph 13:

The government has issued a Planning Reform Working Paper inviting views on proposed provisions in the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill relating to environmental protection and improvement - assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675db3... The proposals are summarised in paragraph 13:

Photo by my "correspondent" in Amsterdam. This is a small urban detail related to superficial roots in pavements. Although the root is left unprotected, the sidewalk does not break or rise. It is called the Solomonic wisdom. #arbopalm #urbanforest #arbol #arbre #arboriculture

Our annual tree giveaway has started - bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/09/t.... Please place your orders and spread the word.

Our annual tree giveaway has started - bristoltreeforum.org/2025/01/09/t.... Please place your orders and spread the word.

We support Baroness Young, who is sponsoring a private member's bill to protect our heritage trees - bills.parliament.uk/publications... - which are defined as 'a tree in England listed as such by Natural England on grounds of exceptional historic, landscape, cultural or ecological importance.'