equipment. The FoBP clearly had no issues with
this but asked that an appropriate number of trees
be planted back; at this point the Council stated
that it had no resource to do this. The FoBP then
decided to seek funding for new tree plantings.
Before any project was drafted, the FoBP decided to
undertake an i-Tree Canopy cover assessment of the
Park to help establish its ecosystem value. Wednesbury
North, the ward which contains Brunswick Park, has
canopy cover of only 13%, well below the national
average and below the government's target of 20%. The
i-Tree Canopy study showed that Brunswick Park has a
50% tree canopy cover, demonstrating how much canopy
cover the Park trees contribute to the wider community.
The FoBP successfully applied for a grant to the local
water board for a resurvey of the Park's trees (as they
had not been inventoried in many years). The grant
also paid for a contractor to gather additional data—
on sunlight exposure, crown and leaf condition, crown
clearance, and land usage classification, to name a few.
The contractor used that data to calculate the eco-
system service value of the Brunswick Park trees, and
the FoBP proposed a tree planting plan to increase
the Park's species diversity. This was well supported
by the Town Councillors and the Arboricultural and
Parks officers who had bought into the scheme early
on, as adding the "Accredited Arboretum" logo to the
Park management plan and to the future Green Flag
applications was clearly going to do no harm. >>
This common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) has suffered from
parking over its root system, so FoBP lobbied the Council Tree
Officer for protection. A ring of wood blocks was installed,
and next, the entire area inside the blocks will be mulched.
Ian McDermott and other Friends of Brunswick Park meeting with
local leadership. Behind them is a monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria
araucana) shown below, one of the Red List (threatened in native
range) species growing and thriving in the Park's arboretum.
urban-forestry.com 39
