Lewes achieves ‘arboretum town’ status

Lewes has been internationally recognised as an arboretum town. The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Programme recognises places achieving specified levels of professional practice in the planting, study and conservation of trees, as Audrey Jarvis of Friends of Lewes’ Trees Committee explains.

Level 1 Arboretum status was awarded to Lewes in May through the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Programme, an international programme providing standards and guidelines for the establishment and development of an arboretum to advance the planting, study, and conservation of trees. Currently there are 611 accredited arboreta in 39 countries globally.

The programme includes four levels of accreditation in total.

A ‘town-wide arboretum’
Lewes Urban Arboretum is unusual because it is not restricted to an individual property but extends across the whole of the town of Lewes. The only other town-wide arboretum in the UK is Sidmouth. The criteria which contributed to our award included our plans and organisation, our volunteer support, and the number of different species of trees. For example, the Trees Committee of Friends of Lewes has planted 47 different species across the town. See what it has planted in Lewes here: Lewes Urban Arboretum: tree planting to date – Google My Maps

Tree-planting legacy of Lewes
The current Trees Committee of Friends of Lewes, which manages the Lewes Urban Arboretum Project, was set up in 2012 to realise the vision of the late Paul Millmore – of Lewes as a “town in the trees”.

Recognition as a town-wide arboretum by ArbNet is valuable to its goal of restoring our treescape. This achievement owes much to the legacy of tree planting and conservation by previous community groups, local councils, and residents.

Moderating the threats to our trees
We hope this new accreditation will provide a launch point to further engage others in working together to moderate the threats to tree planting, such as climate change, pests and diseases, the unnecessary felling of healthy trees and the demand for increased housing and infrastructure. We all need to plan and plant for the future!

Find out more about ArbNet, and see the link to the entry for Lewes Urban Arboretum, here: http://arbnet.org/morton-register/lewes-urban-arboretum.

To learn more about Lewes Urban Arboretum, visit: Lewes Urban Arboretum – The Friends of Lewes (friends-of-lewes.org.uk)