Urban Forestry Services Team

A skilled team, ready to get stuck in

Our Urban Forestry Services team works across Greater Manchester, planting trees and caring for woodlands to help them thrive for the long term. From parks and greenspaces to farmland and privately owned sites, the team works with local authorities, landowners and partner organisations to deliver tree planting and woodland management projects across the region.

As part of City of Trees, the team is helping us create and care for more woodland, while building skills and creating opportunities for people to develop careers in the forestry sector.

We established our in-house Urban Forestry Services team in 2024, creating new opportunities for people to build practical skills and careers in the environmental sector. Today, the team works across Greater Manchester on everything from parks and public spaces to private land and large-scale woodland creation schemes. They plant new trees and woodlands, maintain the sites we’ve already planted and carry out the vital aftercare that gives young trees the best chance of reaching maturity.

Keeping this expertise in-house also means we can build skills and employment within Greater Manchester while strengthening our capacity to deliver high-quality work across the region.

Growing Greater Manchester’s urban forest

Our team has already got thousands of trees in the ground across Greater Manchester.

At present, the team had planted more than 24,000 saplings across over 65 sites, alongside more than 100 standard trees in parks and green spaces.

That work has taken the team right across the region. At seven Greater Manchester fire stations, they planted more than 30 semi-mature trees, taking care of everything from underground service checks and excavation through to planting, staking and guarding.

At Moss Bank Park in Bolton, they planted more than 1,800 saplings. They’ve worked with Great Lever Golf Club to create new woodland plots alongside fairways and transformed areas of private farmland with new low-density woodland.

And at Greenbooth Reservoir in Rochdale – one of City of Trees’ largest woodland creation scheme  – the team has helped establish and maintain more than 17,000 trees across 21 hectares, including replacing damaged shelters and trees, controlling vegetation, repairing fencing and restocking.

That practical aftercare matters. Planting is only the beginning: maintaining young trees and woodlands gives them the best chance to establish, mature and deliver lasting benefits for people, wildlife and the climate. That emphasis fits closely with the wider City of Trees approach to woodland management.