Hundreds of people express interest in becoming tree wardens in Doncaster

Councillors discussing a new policy around the management of trees across the borough heard 365 respondents, nearly half of those who took part in the consultation, said they would be interested in a potential future warden role.

A tree warden is someone who plants, look after trees in their patch. According to the Tree Council, wardens will often raise awareness in the community around the benefits of trees and will be the ‘eyes, ears and voice’ of the area.

The new tree policy, which is expected to be approved by members of Mayor Ros Jones’s cabinet, was brought about following the felling of dozens of healthy street trees along Middlefield Road in Bessacarr which prompted mass anger from campaigners who said other engineering solutions were available.

Doncaster Council’s director of the environment, Dan Swaine, also said the council could look at events in the future celebrating the role of trees in the borough, similar to places like they do in Scandinavia.

“The number of people who said that they’re really keen to get involved in tree issues is high and we’ve talked about tree wardens, that’s one way of trying to give people some ownership for the process of a real tangible role within the process,” Mr Swaine said.

“This gives the importance of people feeling ownership of the importance of individual citizens feeling a sense of responsibility.

“Businesses have a responsibility but the community also has a responsibility to be involved as well and one of the things that I suggested was that as part of a volunteer programme maybe tree wardens and other initiatives would be really good.

This could be Doncaster having a tree day or a tree week where we celebrate trees as they do in the Scandinavian countries to get kids to come and decorate trees in urban spaces to celebrate those and to share them with people and to get citizens and particularly younger people involved and engaged in the future of the trees.”

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