Cambridge’s ‘urban forest’ – its trees and green infrastructure – is essential to the city’s character, health and resilience. It helps to cool neighbourhoods during heatwaves, reduce flood risk, support wildlife and improve air quality. All this makes Cambridge a healthier and more attractive place to live and work.

Our Urban Forest Strategy will replace our Tree Strategy in 2026. It will set out our proposed vision, principles, aims, policies and actions for protecting, managing and growing Cambridge’s urban forest over the next decade.

The strategy will be a non-statutory document. It will explain how we will:

• manage more – maintain and care for the trees we already have
• protect more – safeguard important trees and canopy, especially where it is under pressure
• plant more – increase tree cover and species diversity in the right places
• engage more – support residents, communities and organisations to be part of delivery

The strategy will be supported by a set of topic papers, which provide additional detail and evidence on specific themes. These themes include asset management, tree planting, subsidence, governance and resourcing, climate resilience, statutory responsibilities, and canopy measurement.

Consultation

In September 2025, councillors approved the draft strategy for consultation. We then ran an internal consultation from October to December 2025, supported by staff communications. Feedback was generally supportive and identified minor improvements to clarity, navigation and referencing.

In January and February 2026, we sought your views through public consultation, ahead of publishing the final Urban Forest Strategy later in the year. Our short video explains more.

Your responses will help us finalise the strategy. We want to hear your thoughts about:

• the overall direction of the strategy – whether the vision, principles and aims for Cambridge’s urban forest are clear and supported
• the level of ambition for the future – including canopy cover, long-term tree legacy and where growth should be prioritised
• how trees are managed and protected – balancing climate resilience, species choice, mature tree retention and public safety
• expectations on development and investment – including developer responsibilities, tree replacement, establishment and long-term care
• priorities for action and involvement – how limited resources should be focused and how communities can be involved in supporting the urban forest

Next steps

After the consultation, we will:

• review and analyse the responses
• publish a summary of what we heard and how we will respond
• update the draft strategy and supporting papers where appropriate
• present the final Urban Forest Strategy for approval according to our governance process