Branch out and show you love our trees

Friday 21 August 2015

You don’t have to be a tree hugger to love trees but a Jersey charity is hoping to root out some of our favourites.

Jersey Trees for Life is running a Channel Island competition to see what 'Trees We Love' and wants you to take a photo of the one you love best.

Jersey Trees for Life’s Michel Morel said: “I was interested in running this competition because Jersey Trees for Life has really focused over the last few years on the environmental benefits that trees bring. In many instances we also receive calls from concerned members of the community expressing regret that a particular tree, or group of trees, near them has/have been felled.

“This competition will hopefully encourage islanders to think about the aesthetic importance of trees too. Many recent studies clearly show a link between trees in an environment and better air quality and human health (including mental), particularly in urban areas.

"Also, we have focused on particular species of trees that we have been planting or highlighting at the sites we work and I wanted this competition to be about capturing some of the beautiful images of ordinary trees that ordinary people find beautiful and inspiring.

“There are countless examples of beautiful trees which are not of particular significance all over the islands and a dozen of these will feature in the 2016 RUBiS calendar and on our websites.

“We're delighted to be working with Guernsey Trees for Life to make this a truly Channel Island competition, and also delighted to have our partners RUBiS supporting us. I think it's a really useful link that reinforces the idea of the carbon cycle in that the release of carbon dioxide gas by burning fuels can be absorbed, at a global level, by planting trees.”

You’ve got until the end of the month to register for the competition which you can do by emailing education@jerseytreesforlife.org and all the entries have to be in by 20 September.

The UK’s top tree last year was an oak tree in Nottinghamshire believed to have sheltered Robin Hood and his merry men. It went on to come sixth in an international competition won by an oak tree on a football pitch in Estonia.