Cheltenham has about 6,500 highway trees that are the responsibility of Gloucestershire County Council. Charlton Kings has around 500 highway trees on over 200 streets
The Parish Council is working with local resident and nature lover Mindy Pickering to create a community network which cares for the local street trees.
The street trees you check up on could be outside your house, on your way to the shops, or part of a route that you regularly walk. You can choose which trees you want to help look after.
There are a number of levels to which you might want to get involved.
1 - Tree Buddy
Begin to notice more about the trees where you live and walk regularly and water your chosen trees in times of drought. Use the feedback form on this page if you spot any problems - that's it! We would love you to get in touch and tell us that you're getting involved but you don't have to.
2 - Tree Friend
Do what a Tree Buddy does but also...
Adopt a road and report on the condition of the trees in that road every 6 months. We promise it's a really short form (see the example below). This logs any less urgent actions that need to be taken to protect the health of the tree. We can then feed this back to the appropriate department for them to take action.
3 - Tree Champion
Do what a Tree Buddy and Friend does but also...
You might have the time to join Mindy's team and help us decide the future direction of the Tree Guardians. We might want to run projects or events relating to trees or maybe in time, map the various trees in Charlton Kings so that every tree ends up with a Guardian in the next 5 years.
Whatever level you want to get involved at, we'd really appreciate your help in highlighting the work of the Tree Guardians by sharing social media posts, encouraging other people to get involved and generally tell your friends and colleagues what you do and why it's important to you.
If you'd like to keep in touch with our other Tree volunteers, have a place to ask questions and help us to create the Tree Guardian Movement, please use the link to join our Facebook Group. You might also be interested in joining the Sustainable Charlton Kings group which has lots of interesting information shared by local residents as well as members of the CK Futures team.
If you'd prefer not to join the group, you're welcome to just drop Mindy an email with your name and which trees you're planning to keep an eye on. This helps us as the number of Tree Guardians grow as we'll be able to identify areas in Charlton Kings which are still in need of Tree Guardians. Mindy's email is treeguardians@charltonkingsparishcouncil.gov.uk
You may want to join the CK Futures Facebook Group, Sustainable Charlton Kings and share your Tree Guardian journey or any other parts of your journey to live more sustainably.
Street Tree Feedback Form
If you spot a tree in Charlton Kings which is looking unwell (lack of support, damaged trunk or branches, diseased leaves or any other issues which cannot be resolved by watering!) please fill out this form.
Ideally we'd like to know your name and email so we can reply and say thank you, but if you just want to report the location and the issue that's okay too.
Once Mindy receives your report she passes it onto the relevant department so that remedial work can be carried out.
The Tree Guardians are focussed on the street trees rather than trees in parks or private land.
For reporting issues with trees in parks or private land please go the bottom of the page for additional weblinks.
Top tips to help improve the health of trees
Tree Week - Top tips for looking after trees (PDF, 264 Kb)
What can one practically do to a tree to improve its health once the tree has been planted: