Tour tremendous trees!

12 April 2005

Plymouth’s trees will be the centre of attention on St George’s Day (Saturday 23 April) when Tony Kirkham, Head of the internationally-famous Kew Gardens Arboretum, leads a walking tour of city centre trees.

The ‘tree tour’ will start from the University of Plymouth’s Portland Square building at 10.30am and last for approximately two hours. Later that day (2.30pm) Tony Kirkham will talk about his work with trees across the world.

Both events, hosted by the University’s cultural programme Peninsula Arts, are open to the public with a combined £5 admission charge. The day is being organised by the International Tree Foundation, which has teamed up with the University to celebrate the important role that trees play in all our lives.

Plymouth has a special place in the world of trees as it was from here that many explorers and plant collectors set sail on their voyages of discovery – often in ships built from locally grown oak. Among the most notable was Sir Joseph Banks who started the Kew Gardens tree collection and accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage to Australia.

Tony Kirkham has led four plant-collecting expeditions to central China and Japan and has been involved in field research in several other countries. He featured in last year’s BBC2 programme ‘A Year at Kew’ and has published two books about trees.

The International Tree Foundation, originally Men of the Trees, has planted and inspired millions of new trees since its foundation in Kenya over eighty years ago. In 2003, the Devon Branch joined with other local organisations and Plymouth City Council to form Plymouth Tree Partnership and is working to conserve and improve the city’s trees. Among its achievements, the partnership has enrolled over forty tree wardens and enabled 15 local schools to plant trees in their grounds.

For more information about the International Tree Foundation call (08707) 744269 or visit: www.internationaltreefoundation.org.

ENDS

For further information please email: publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk or Andrew Young at the International Tree Foundation (email: andrewyoung@fish.co.uk).