When developing a local Tree and Woodland Strategy (TAWS), it’s important to consider the social and cultural values local communities hold for trees. Protests and tensions can quickly arise when local trees are seen as under threat, or people feel they are not being listened to when concerned about trees. Many people will think of the campaigns and protests in Sheffield and Plymouth in relation to tree management actions. But individual trees that have been lost have also created concern and consternation, such as the Happy Man Tree in London and particularly the Sycamore Gap tree, which made national headlines. So, understanding more about these values is important as well as knowing which are a priority for people.
With this in mind, we developed a robust, research-led approach and created a measure to assess these values which are difficult to quantify and monetise in a standard way. This work was Defra-funded through a Future Proofing Plant Health project, in partnership with The Tree Council, University of York and Fera Science.
The measure features in a new module - How measuring the social and cultural value of trees helps your trees and woodland strategy - available now as part of The Tree Council’s existing Tree and Woodland Strategy Toolkit. The resource provides local authorities and stakeholders with guidance on how to develop a local survey, outlining a simple and structured approach to understand the ways in which trees are valued by people in a community. Results from a national survey of 5,000 people in England about the social and cultural values of trees are also provided.
The approach
We undertook a rapid review of evidence and identified six main categories of value most talked about in the literature:
· Aesthetics and landscape
· Spiritual
· Wellbeing
· Place/community
· Nature/Wildlife
· Learning
Based on the literature, as a research team we then identified and developed two - three statements for each of these six categories. These are statements that can be used in a survey of local communities or at a regional or national level to explore the strength of these values. We tested the statements in a survey with over 200 people and in interviews with 30 people going through the survey statements to make sure they made sense to people, were understandable and whether we had left anything out.
From the pilot testing, we developed a final list of nineteen statements of social and cultural values, and we used them in a survey of 5,000 people in England. The survey was run via an online panel of people, and we focused on a sample representative by age, gender and region.
The importance of local trees and trees nationally in England
We asked people to respond twice to the statements, once when considering their local trees and the second time when thinking about trees at a national level that they may or may not ever visit or connect with.
We thought there might be a difference between people thinking about trees locally that they may visit or see as they go about their everyday lives and trees at a national level that they might never see or visit very occasionally. Surprisingly we found no statistically significant difference between the scores people gave for local trees or trees nationally. People value trees in their communities and as part of the wider landscape across the country.
The social and cultural values people hold for trees are high
You can see from the table below our nineteen statements and the range of social and cultural values that they cover. All these aspects were identified in the literature as important to people. Our survey also highlights this. We asked people to score each statement on a scale of 0-100 (0=strongly disagree, 100=strongly agree). Any scores of 60-100 mean people agree or strongly agree with the statements. Only three statements at the local level fall outside of this, none of them do at the national level.
Why might this be useful to you?
By using this measure along with environmental data, you can gain a more holistic understanding of your local treescape. You may also want to incorporate the data from the national survey into your strategy. Conducting your own survey will help you understand which social and cultural values of trees are most important to your communities. It will also allow you to engage with your communities and other parts of the local authority to highlight the importance of these values.
For example, we have worked with Wirral Council and Portsmouth City Council on i-Tree projects and have used the measure in people surveys to sit alongside the tree surveys.
“By incorporating the social and cultural values of trees into our decision-making and policies, we adopt a more holistic approach to tree management”. Senior Tree and Woodland Manager, Wirral Council
We have a responsibility to acknowledge that the social and cultural values of treescapes are important to people, and they should therefore be an important component of your trees and woodland strategy. This evidence can be important for strategic planning to ensure the benefits of trees are equally distributed. It can also feed into different strategies such as green infrastructure and local nature recovery strategies.
To access and download the new module, How measuring the social and cultural value of trees helps your trees and woodland strategy, and to access The Tree Council’s full Tree and Woodland Strategy Toolkit please visit: www.treecouncil.org.uk/science-and-research/trees-and-woodland-strategy-toolkit/
EVENT: Understanding the Social & Cultural Values of Trees – online lunch and learn session
Thu 26 Jun 2025 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM BST
Together with Forest Research, The Tree Council is pleased to invite local authorities to attend an online lunch and learn session about how to understand and measure the ways that people and communities value trees. Whether your tree strategy is already in place or is in development, this session and the new module itself will provide useful insights into the latest research.
The session will include:
An introduction to social and cultural values
Presentation of the new module and how it can support your work
Look ahead at upcoming research and opportunities to be involved
Interactive discussion and Q&A
Tickets are free. For more information and to secure your spot, please visit: www.tickettailor.com/events/thetreecouncil/1723137
Liz O’Brien is the Principal Social Scientist at Forest Research
Find out more about The Tree Council at treecouncil.org.uk. Sign up to our monthly newsletter The Leaflet, and follow our social accounts: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIN, X/Twitter, YouTube.
