Urban Forestry Services Team
A skilled team, ready to get stuck in
Our Urban Forestry Services Team work 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 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 65,308 saplings alongside more than 547 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.
“It has been great working with City of Trees on the woodland and hedgerow planting projects. The team are fantastic to work with, great communication, positive attitude and efficient delivery.
Working in partnership for the planting has been an invaluable help to us on site, and has scaled up our ability to deliver more across the estate over the course of the last planting season. The team worked in all weather conditions in a proactive and diligent manner, worked around tenant compromises/livestock movements and aligned with internal adverse weather policies where needed.
Working in partnership in this way has streamlined the delivery of the project allowing us to achieve over 3.4km of hedges and 2ha of woodland” – Ash Deane, National Trust at Quarry Bank Mill
Trusted to deliver
We’re proud to build strong working relationships with our partners and deliver projects with care, from planning through to planting and beyond.
Got land that needs planting? An existing woodland that needs some attention? Or a project where you need an experienced team on the ground?
Our Urban Forestry Services team can help.