Bristol's One Tree Per Child & TreeBristol — Planting Toward a Doubled Canopy, With a Contested Baseline and Target

Bristol City Council runs two complementary planting programmes. One Tree Per Child (since 2015) plants one tree for every primary-school-aged child, mostly small 'whips' in woodlands, orchards and hedgerows; the council reports over 113,000 trees planted (including trees gifted and planted by others) and at least 5,000 per year. TreeBristol (since 2005) plants larger standard trees in streets, parks and green spaces, and includes a tree-sponsorship scheme.
In winter 2024-25 the council planted 6,465 trees, adding a projected 15.3 hectares of canopy (7,918 trees and 17.6 ha in 2023-24). OTPC alone planted 5,683 trees in 2024-25 with 4,850 volunteer hours across 70 sessions; its grant income that year was £34,558 (Trees for Climate/DEFRA, Environment Agency, Woodland Trust and others). 200 trees were replaced after drought or vandalism.
The city's One City Plan target is to double canopy; the council's draft Tree and Woodland Strategy frames it as +795 ha (to 24%) by 2046, and a council appendix recommends prioritising tree equity using canopy, deprivation and urban-heat criteria. Cautions: canopy figures are projections, not measured outcomes; the baseline was revised from about 12% (2018 i-Tree Eco) to 16.9% (2020 aerial data); and Walters & Sinnett (2021, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening) tested 16 i-Tree Forecast scenarios over 27 years precisely because ambitious targets are often set with little thought on how to meet them. No carbon, biodiversity or water outcome is measured in the programme reports.

Read the full analysis: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/files/documents/10090-bccs-tree-planting-report-2024-25/file