Cambridge City Council launches Canopy Project

Cambridge City Council has officially launched a project to increase the area of the city under tree canopy cover over the next three years.

The project will see the local authority plant 2,000 new trees on council-owned land, distribute approximately 1,500 trees to residents through the council’s Free Trees for Babies scheme, as well as increase work with residents and businesses to plant 12,500 trees in gardens and on other privately-owned land.

Currently there are more than 300,000 trees across the city of Cambridge, 30,000 of these are on council-owned or managed land. The over-arching aim of the Canopy Project is to increase the city’s tree canopy cover from 17 per cent to 19 per cent by 2050.

Katie Thornburrow, executive councillor for Planning Policy and Open Spaces, said: “Trees play an enormous role in the life of the city, providing pleasure to many residents and visitors, as well as tangible benefits to people’s well-being, to combat the effects of the climate emergency and provide food and shelter for wildlife. We really want residents, businesses and other landowners to get involved in the Cambridge Canopy Project to help us achieve our targets for increasing the city’s urban forest.

“Around three quarters of land in the city is privately-owned and there are around 44,000 houses with gardens. If every household with a garden planted a tree it would have a huge impact on the scale and connectivity of the tree canopy, with all the benefits that would mean.”