Planting Urban Micro Forests in Westminster

With urban living increasing and the global climate bringing wildfires and suffocating temperatures, green spaces in cities have never been more important. Space is always at a premium, however, so finding opportunities to plant trees can be challenging. Creating Tomorrow’s Forests has teamed up with Westminster City Council to develop an innovative tree planting project, harnessing the power of fast-growing micro forests to deliver a host of ecosystem services and social benefits in a compact size. Here we discuss why planting trees in urban spaces is critical and detail the opportunity open to businesses to work in partnership with us to fund powerful micro forests in the heart of London.

Why is planting urban trees important?

More than half of the world’s population currently live in urban areas, and this is set to rise to almost 70% by 2050, meaning that our towns and cities are increasingly where we spend most of our time. In the UK this figure is even higher, at 83%, putting extraordinary pressure on our urban centres to provide a healthy environment for inhabitants. This pressure is only going to increase due to the higher risk of flooding and drought, rising temperatures, and elevated air pollution that climate change is bringing. The world is already seeing exceptional heatwaves that are felt particularly keenly in urban centres, posing a risk to life. Even in the UK, heat related deaths could exceed 10,000 per year by 2050 according to government estimates.

One of the key ways of mitigating for the risks posed by climate change on towns and cities is by increasing green and blue spaces, i.e. expanding or improving parks and managing waterways effectively. Botanical gardens and wetlands can cool the air by 5 degrees during heatwaves, and parks by 3.2 degrees. This is partly due to the fact that hard surfaces have low albedo and absorb and hold more heat than vegetation, which has higher albedo and reflects short wave radiation. Trees and plants also cool the area around them by providing shade and through evapotranspiration of water from their leaves. Trees have additional benefits in that they reduce air pollution through a process of dry deposition by trapping air particulates in their leaves and branches and store carbon dioxide, helping to remove and mitigate for excess emissions. They also reduce noise pollution by attenuating sound with their leaves and provide aesthetic screening to improve lines of sight for residents.

Another considerable benefit of trees and woodland is that they reduce both the impact and risks of flooding through improving soil permeability and by reducing runoff. There is also significant evidence that our mental health is better with access to green and blue spaces, an effect which is increased with higher biodiversity within those spaces, meaning that the variety of plants and animals in a wild space has an impact on us. Access to high quality green spaces has been demonstrated to have significant beneficial impacts on social cohesion, helping to reduce crime and increase a sense of custodial responsibility towards the space within local communities. Planting additional trees, therefore, can have a dramatic impact on the quality of life for residents, and could deliver ecosystem services benefits of around £1,850 per tree over 5-10 years (calculated from Woodland Trust, KaarbonTech, and West Midlands Combined Authority data).

There are challenges involved in planting trees in urban areas, however, due to lack of space, poor soil quality, high soil compaction (making it difficult for roots to establish), increased risk of drought, and higher temperatures. These difficulties mean that innovative solutions are required to increase tree cover in urban environments. One of these solutions is the Miyawaki Method technique, which plants young trees in close proximity to accelerate tree growth and forest establishment, turning even small areas into dense micro forests, high in biodiversity.

Westbourne Green Open Space project overview

Urban areas pose some of the toughest challenges for nature, due to climate change, construction and development, air and noise pollution, disease, and increasing temperatures. At the same time research is showing that urban green spaces are vital for our health and wellbeing, and for mitigating for drought and floods. London has recognised that trees are critical to the healthy functioning of cities and has developed a target to increase tree cover by 10% by 2050. Westminster City Council has also developed a detailed strategy to improve green spaces to tackle these issues, which is particularly important as the borough covers some of the poorest areas in the country. Working in partnership with the council, CTF aims to harness the power of the Miyawaki planting technique to create dense, fast-growing micro forests in Westbourne Green Open Space and help them meet their objectives.

Project aims

The Westbourne Green Open Space project aims to improve the quality of the park for residents and visitors, by enhancing tree diversity, increasing the size of planted areas, and providing better screening of the A40 Westway. In doing so, the new softscaping will not only provide environmental ecosystem services, but also significantly improve the aesthetic and social value of the park for local residents. The new micro forests will store carbon, increase biodiversity by providing resources for insects and other wildlife, help to absorb and store water runoff to reduce the risks posed by flooding and drought, and reduce air and noise pollution. This aligns with aims laid out in the Westminster Greening and Biodiversity Strategy.

Project background

Over the last three years Creating Tomorrow’s Forests has been working with Westminster City Council and Ruth Wilmott Associates to plant the largest micro forest in central London. Westbourne Green Open Space is situated in the borough of Westminster and is adjacent to the A40 Westway. It has high levels of noise and air pollution and provides a buffer between the flyover and residential buildings behind. It has approximately 112 existing mature trees in total, of which 60% are estimated to be at high risk of pest and tree disease. The soil type is loam and clay texture and the shrubs are scattered with no obvious groupings. The hedges adjacent to the A40 are in poor condition, clipped very low and provide no noise or pollution buffer.  Baselines were obtained of air and noise pollution levels to enable downstream assessment of beneficial impacts.

Project Design

Working in conjunction with Ruth Wilmott Associates, an assessment of the existing park vegetation was undertaken, in order to select the best places to increase tree numbers. Detailed analysis was then completed to identify which tree species would be best for achieving the project aims of increasing biodiversity, reducing air pollution, and mitigating for noise pollution. This was combined with data on the resilience of tree species to climate change to ensure that the species selected would be resistant to higher temperatures.

Six sites were identified around the park and these were allocated either a pollution focus, with species that were specialists in tackling noise and air particulates, or a biodiversity focus, with species that were high in nectar, pollen, and fruit and excellent for pollinators and animals. The micro forests would all be planted using the Miyawaki Method, where saplings are placed at high density to accelerate forest growth. This has the advantage of reducing downstream care needs as there is less need for weeding. The project specification also included planting 25 standalone fruit bearing trees, which would be 3m standards, and adding extra trees to the existing hedge to repair breaks.

Pollution focus species: Blackthorn, hawthorn, elder, hornbeam, holly, field maple, western red cedar, cotoneaster

Biodiversity focus species: Blackthorn, hawthorn, elder, hornbeam, holly, field maple, hazel

The project had to go out for public consultation before being put before the councillors for the final agreement, and received an astonishing approval rating of over 90% from the community.

Project implementation

We planted two of the six sections at the Westminster site during the planting season in early 2025 and restored a section of the hedgerow. So far we have planted 965 trees over 215 m² thanks to the amazing contribution of 35 volunteers and our funding partners Wilmott Dixon and MOLEA. These events have brought together councillors, council staff, CTF staff, funding partners, and community groups (The Climate Champions), connecting people with nature and creating a positive living legacy to improve the park for residents.

On each of the days CTF carried out ground preparation before the planting session and installed fencing around the area to be planted. The volunteers were given an introduction to the park and the project, with a tour detailing the local ecology and the design of the new planted areas. Then CTF provided a detailed tutorial in how to apply the mulch and plant the trees, supervising as volunteers planted the saplings and then ensuring they were all quality control checked afterwards.

The feedback from the volunteers afterwards was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, and participants felt as if they had deeply connected with nature and the project. We will be continuing to foster this sense of engagement by offering updates and further volunteer opportunities for the volunteers and funding partners. During the project design we developed a detailed social impact strategy and will be continuing to work with the council to provide opportunities for engagement and education around the growing forests.

For more information about further opportunities to fund our projects and experience a truly unique team building day which leaves a lasting legacy, please do check out our Westminster project page, our Trees & Teamwork information page, or contact us for more details.