Background to the scheme

The Tree Warden Scheme had its origin in the early 1980s in East Sussex and Leicestershire. The object of the Scheme was to create a network of informed people who could co-ordinate local tree based environmental improvements on behalf of the County Council. In 1989 there were 173 Tree Wardens in East Sussex and Leicestershire. In that same year in the wake of the Great Storm The Tree Council initiated a National Tree Warden Scheme, based on the East Sussex model. It grew and spread with enormous speed and 20 years later has around 8,000 Tree Wardens volunteering in 150 local networks.