About trees and woodlands

Our Woodlands and Countryside Section cares for one of the city’s finest resources, providing at least 25 million visits to the city’s parks, woodlands and open spaces each year. We have over 100,000 trees in parks and open spaces meaning we are the most wooded and treed city in Britain (10.4% woodland by area).

We have 80 ancient woodlands and 180 woods in total, with Ecclesall Woods being the largest ancient semi-natural woodland in South Yorkshire.

Our roles and responsibilities

Our key roles are:

the maintenance, management and development of woodlands and trees in parks and open spaces
Community Forestry, involving local people in improving their environment
organising educational, interpretative and recreational events
protecting and enhancing wildlife and historic landscapes
ancient woodland restoration and management
offering a Commemorative Tree Scheme
providing a consultancy service to our other services
generating income from timber and firewood sales to help manage our woods

Report problems

Please contact us and if possible, please tell us:

what the problem is
the exact location of the tree, eg on land behind house number and road name
please leave a contact number in case we need to contact you about your enquiry

Report a problem with a street tree

Key achievements

Our achievements over the past 5 years include:

involving 20,000 people in community events
planting over 50,000 new trees
consulting with and involving over 100 local community groups across the city in improving their local environment
securing additional project funding to the value of £2 million. For example, from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Forestry Commission, Children’s Fund, South Yorkshire Forest Partnership and European Objective 1, amongst many others
leading on the declaration of 17 Local Nature Reserves extending over 580ha, protecting some of the best sites for wildlife in the city including Roe Wood and Crabtree Pond, the Gleadless Valley, Woolley Wood and Woodhouse Washlands
Forest Stewardship Council certification for our sustainable management of woodlands we own, involving the harvesting of around 4,000 tonnes of timber a year, and supporting the local economy
Green Flag management award - Ecclesall Woods and Wheata Woods

Making trees safe

To ensure the trees are safe and do not cause a hazard to the public, maintenance work has to be prioritised on a Health and Safety basis: