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Woodland Walks podcast with Adam Shaw – urban trees

Adam Shaw Author

Adam Shaw

Guest blogger

My latest woodland walk is one with a twist - it's in the city of Leeds. Guided by the Trust's street tree guru, Joe Coles, we explore Woodhouse Ridge, a pocket of urban woodland, before meandering through some of Leeds' tree-lined - and tree-less - streets.

Our walk culminates with a very special tree - the London plane tree in Dortmund Square. Planted in a once stark concrete shopping area in 2015. it's now a fantastic example of how trees can be planted in any environment.

Adam (left) and Joe (right) on a walk through Leeds' urban woodland.

Credit: Victoria Phillips / WTML

Along the way, we also meet Justin Williamson, woodland officer for Leeds City Council, and Dr Catherine Scott from Leeds University's Sustainability Research Institute. Our fascinating discussions include:

  • the role of cities in the new Northern Forest
  • urban trees as wildlife corridors
  • the importance of trees for air quality  
  • the need for new building developments to incorporate trees
  • how green spaces benefit our quality of life.

Listen to the podcast now on Apple podcast and iTunes, Libsyn or Soundcloud.

New to the podcast?

Don’t miss our previous episodes:

  1. Heartwood– we visit a vast forest of ancient woodland, newly planted trees, wildflower meadows and fantastic wildlife. I was joined by Beccy Speight, then-chief executive of the Trust, and Tim Wright and Brian Legg, two of Heartwood’s amazing volunteers.
  2. Loch Arkaig - hear from site manager Steve Morris, raptor expert Lewis Pate, project manager Jessica Maxwell and other custodians of this truly astonishing landscape as we explore the wilderness of Loch Arkaig Pine Forest.
  3. Trees on farms – David Rose shows us how trees on his Nottinghamshire farm make a difference for the business and for local communities. Discover the edible woodland and forest school area, meet some of the farm’s visitors, and learn more about the importance of trees outside woods as well as in.
  4. Ben Shieldaig - take a tour of spectacular Ben Shieldaig in Scotland’s West Highlands, the Trust’s first mountain and a great example of Scotland’s rainforest.

Get involved

Please subscribe to the podcast if you want to hear more adventures in the woodlands of the UK and don’t forget to rate us or leave a review!

I am keen to hear from you as well – so if you have a favourite woodland walk, do tell me about it in a short email or if you can, make a 5 minute or so recording of your own walk and we may feature your woodland walk in a future podcast.

I’ll be off on another woodland walk soon. Hope you can join me.

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