2024's Top Tree Talks
A round up of our most popular posts...
Welcome to your first edition of Tree Talk for 2025 - we’re thrilled to extend a warm welcome to a new year of trees, hedgerows, nature and policy chat for our established readers, and all our new subscribers!
But first, a little overview of Tree Talk’s activity across a busy 2024 – let’s see which posts proved most popular…
Top 3 most read posts of 2024
Tree Talk Party Conference Special! (October 11)
5.11K reads
Perhaps a surprise winner, but this edition offering summaries and analysis of each of the autumn political party conferences – in the wake of a general election that resulted in a change of government – was the most read post of 2024. When so much of our work in trees is led by government policy or funding decisions, it felt important to collate an analysis of promises and aspirations at national level.
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/tree-talk-party-conference-special
Sycamore Summer Symptoms (August 16)
4.58K reads
Exactly the kind of post we love here at Tree Talk Towers! We’re delighted it went down so well with you all. Our brilliant, countrywide Science and Research team notice something unusual, take photos, compare notes, conduct a little investigating and…well it turns out it could all be down to the squirrels! Alternative theories always welcome!
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/sycamore-summer-symptoms
MistleGO! a year on the UK mistletoe trail (November 22)
3.62K reads
Completing our top three is this follow up by The Tree Council supported University of Oxford PhD candidate, Ollie Spacey. Ollie is researching the very recognisable but less well understood hemiparasite, mistletoe. At the end of 2023, he launched a citizen science app seeking mistletoe sightings across the UK, with the aim of capturing crucial data on its abundance and spread. It’s been a spectacular success, with more than 1,250 records collected so far. Sign up to register your sightings this winter, here.
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/mistlego-a-year-on-the-uk-mistletoe
Highest Open Rate of 2024
Trialling the reintroduction of “railway hedges” five years on (April 5)
59% opens
With an average open rate across the year of 54%, this was always going to be a tight one. But just pipping the top spot is this post by The Tree Council’s Science & Action Research Manager, Jess Allan. It tells the tale of The Tree Council’s work with Network Rail to investigate the return of ‘railway hedges’, as an alternative to metal fencing, to keep livestock and people off the lines – and deliver a huge biodiversity boost. Also covered by ITV News, the trials were a success, and the next step is to see how viable this approach could be on a grander scale.
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/trialling-the-reintroduction-of-railway
Most New Subscribers from a Single Post
Sycamore Summer Symptoms (August 16)
21 new subscribers
Yes, it’s those squirrels again! As well as being one of our most read stories, this post attracted the most subscribers across the whole of 2024, with 21 new sign ups direct from the page. Another tight win, with many posts drawing double figure new subscribers, honourable mention should go to Securing the future of Suffolk's Native Black Poplars, from March, and Surveying Shropshire’s OAP hedgerow trees, from February, both of which came very close to pipping the 21 secured by this post.
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/sycamore-summer-symptoms
Most Liked Posts
The Miyawaki Planting Method (August 30)
13 likes
Also drawing high reader numbers, this analysis of the Miyawaki method - its history, background and potential value - from Jackie Shallcross, The Tree Council’s Shared Outcomes Fund: Trees Outside Woodland project lead, was our most liked post of 2024. You can find out more by watching this video on The Tree Council’s YouTube channel (currently on 51K views and counting!)
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/the-miyawaki-planting-method
Miyawaki Forests of Japan (25 October)
12 likes
As part of her work investigating new approaches to urban tree establishment, Jackie Shallcross travelled to Japan, the birthplace of the Miyawaki method, for the International Symposium: Miyawaki Forests and Urban Forests - Towards the Creation of Miyawaki Forests as Nature Labs in Schools. This dispatch offered insights from the conference, reflections on methodology and lots of great images of now established Miyawaki forests.
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/miyawaki-forests-of-japan
Mind the gap: farming policy and the phasing out of cross compliance
12 likes (12 January)
Our first post of 2024, by The Tree Council’s Science & Action Research Manager, Jess Allan offered a brilliant analysis of some of the upcoming regulatory and policy challenges in the world of trees and hedgerows – particularly the approaching end of “cross compliance” rules. Thanks to a lot of hard work from The Tree Council, our many charity partners, and Defra colleagues, hedgerow protections were extended.
Read again > https://treetalk.substack.com/p/mind-the-gap-farming-policy-and-the
Wishing all our fantastic subscribers an exciting and nature-filled New Year!
And if you had a favourite post from 2024 that isn’t mentioned, drop a line in the comments! Please do the same if there are any Tree Talk topics you would like to see covered in 2025.
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I have two favourites, one from Feb on OAP trees, which was really interesting to read and more recently, your initial findings on research around free or subsidised trees. Looking forward to reading the full findings of that research and indeed all of your 2025 posts.