We have exciting news from our Trees Outside Woodland research project. We’ve just released the results of our research pilot which shows that giveaway schemes can establish trees cost-effectively at scale – and that asking recipients to pay a little toward their trees boosts survival rates.

Over the past four years, we’ve worked with four local authorities to hand out 145,000 trees across 1,200 sites. We wanted to understand whether asking people to contribute toward the cost of their trees had any effect on their survival. And the findings are clear: trees given away through subsidised schemes (where participants contribute 50% of the cost) had higher year-one survival rates; 88% compared to 83% for free schemes. And importantly, subsidised schemes were far more cost-effective, reducing the cost per surviving tree to the local authority from £3.59 to just £1.58.

This research reinforces something we’ve long suspected – when people invest in their trees, they take better care of them. And given how much demand there is for these schemes – one in Kent was oversubscribed by 400%, we know there’s real appetite out there to get more trees in the ground.

If you’re interested and want to find out more, join us for a free lunch and learn talk and Q&A on Tuesday 18 March from 12-1pm, where our findings will be presented by the Chichester District Council tree officer who led on the pilot scheme. Spaces are limited so book your ticket now at the link below. You can also watch our short film about the project and the difference these schemes are making in the communities receiving the trees, and read the full report.

What's really interesting to see is that these findings are already having an impact – one of the local authorities we worked with on this pilot, Norfolk County Council, had never run a tree scheme before but is now coordinating a subsidised scheme to help them achieve their ambitious tree planting targets. Another, Shropshire Council, which had been running free tree schemes for decades, is now running subsidised schemes. 

We hope to see you there on the 18th March.