ArticleslgStudy

science

The Big Tree Plant

The Big Tree Plant is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Big Tree Plant rather than just read about it. In short: The Big Tree Plant was a Government-sponsored campaign in England in 2010, to promote the planting of trees in neighbourhoods where people lived and worked. The national campaign ran over four years from 2011 to 2015 and met its objective to plant one million trees.

The Big Tree Plant — main illustration
The Big Tree Plant — illustration

Key takeaways

  • The Big Tree Plant belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect The Big Tree Plant to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of The Big Tree Plant from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Big Tree Plant was a Government-sponsored campaign in England in 2010, to promote the planting of trees in neighbourhoods where people lived and worked. The national campaign ran over four years from 2011 to 2015 and met its objective to plant one million trees.

Background

The campaign aimed to halt the ongoing decline in urban and semi-urban tree planting in England and was the first such initiative since Plant A Tree In '73. The decline was highlighted by a survey of urban trees in England carried out in 2005 (published as the report Trees in Towns II in 2008), which found that there had been a 'big reduction' in urban tree planting (compared to a similar 1992 survey) leading to an 'unsatisfactory age structure' with too few young trees, and which concluded that the issue should be 'urgently addressed'. In London a separate 2007 report, Chainsaw Massacre, found that there were concerns about planting rates in some boroughs, and that mature broadleaf street trees throughout London were under 'severe threat' due to a mixture of development pressures, reduced expenditure, public apathy and antipathy, and (often unsubstantiated) concerns by insurance companies, solicitors and home-owners over subsidence. Both reports also expressed concern over the practice of planting smaller ornamental species rather than large-growing broadleaf trees such as London plane, and particularly larger native trees like lime and oak.

Funding

Funding of £4.2m was to be made available for community, civic and other non-profit groups from April 2011. In addition to covering planting costs, grants could be used for related purposes such as community involvement, site surveys and the provision of expert advice. £4m of the funding allocation was promised by the Forestry Commission through 'efficiency savings and re-prioritisation', while the remaining £200,000 came from the existing London Tree and Woodland Community Grant. The independently chaired Big Tree Plant Grants Panel included representatives from civil society organisations, DEFRA, and the Forestry Commission, and met each spring and summer to award funds. In advance of the main funding, Keep Britain Tidy - one of the partners supporting the initiative - had already invited applications for planting kits from schools in the Government's Eco-School programme.

Criticism and reactions

The funding arrangements, specifically the fact that the grants would normally only cover up to 75% of the cost of each scheme (although free labour could be offset against this), was criticised by some as favouring better-off over deprived communities. Other projects which coordinated external funding from local stakeholders were more successful. The government stated that “Seventy percent of the trees in The Big Tree Plant programme were being planted in England’s most deprived areas.” The programme was generally well received. 62,336 trees were planted in the Mersey Forest representing 6% of England's total Big Tree Plant target of 1 million trees. Conservation Volunteers and community groups also managed to plant over 143,000 trees all around England during the programme.

Partners The DEFRA-led The Big Tree Plant campaign was backed by a number of partners including The Tree Council, Woodland Trust, Trees for Cities, England's 12 Community Forests, the National Forest, BTCV, Civic Voice, Groundwork UK, Keep Britain Tidy, the Local Government Association, the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Forestry Commission. The national campaign's partnership planted one million trees between 2011 and 2015.

See also Plant A Tree In '73 - a similar campaign in 1973. Green belt Green urbanism Tree planting Trees for Cities Urban forest Urban forestry Urban green space Urban reforestation

References

External links The Big Tree Plant - official site The benefits of urban trees - Trees for Cities W1W Street Tree planting initiative in London which benefited from Big Tree Plant funding in 2012 The Mersey Forest and the Big Tree Plant The Big Tree Plant Campaign Overview NHS forest and the Big Tree Plant

Illustrations

The Big Tree Plant illustration
The Big Tree Plant: Trees planted on Westrigg Road, Carlisle as part of the scheme
Trees planted on Westrigg Road, Carlisle as part of the scheme
The Big Tree Plant: Pit preparation for a Street Tree in Fitzrovia (Central London) part funded by the scheme.
Pit preparation for a Street Tree in Fitzrovia (Central London) part funded by the scheme.
The Big Tree Plant: Alan Titchmarsh plants a tree on Bolsover Street in London part supported by the campaign[13]
Alan Titchmarsh plants a tree on Bolsover Street in London part supported by the campaign[13]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Big Tree Plant

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Big Tree Plant claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Big Tree Plant before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Big Tree Plant ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Big Tree Plant

In research
The Big Tree Plant appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses The Big Tree Plant in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
The Big Tree Plant is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 establishments in England, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Environmentalism in the United Kingdom, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for The Big Tree Plant outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “The Big Tree Plant” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study The Big Tree Plant in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what The Big Tree Plant means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain The Big Tree Plant out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Big Tree Plant in simple terms?

The Big Tree Plant was a Government-sponsored campaign in England in 2010, to promote the planting of trees in neighbourhoods where people lived and worked. The national campaign ran over four years from 2011 to 2015 and met its objective to plant one million trees.

Why does The Big Tree Plant matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Big Tree Plant?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Big Tree Plant.

Tags

  • 2010 establishments in England
  • Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
  • Environmentalism in the United Kingdom
  • Forestry events
  • Forests and woodlands of the United Kingdom
  • Projects established in 2010
  • Reforestation
  • Town and country planning in England
  • Trees of the United Kingdom
  • Urban design

Keep exploring