Another successful year for Cambridge City Council’s ‘Free Trees for Babies’ scheme

In February this year Cambridge City Council gave away 350 trees to residents as part of it’s ‘Free Trees for Babies’ scheme – celebrating new births in the city.

The Council has been running the scheme since 1999 and has given away more than 2,600 trees during this period. The scheme incentivises residents to plant more trees and in doing so, helps to grow the urban forest. The greatest land area in Cambridge is that under private ownership, and as such, this offers the greatest opportunity for tree planting. Incentive schemes like this are a great way to reach out to people that might not ordinarily plant trees in their gardens. By making a connection to the births of their children it increases the likelihood that the trees will be planted and cared for. For the first 15 years of the scheme, less than 100 trees were given away annually. But with new enthusiasm and resources, this rapidly increased to about 150/year, then stepped up to 350/year or more for the last few years. Now, with further support from the Nature Smart Cities project, it is hoped this figure can be increased further to 500 plus per year.