Newsroom Archive

Telford Development Corporation planted millions of trees in the 1970s to green the industrial landscape as Telford New Town developed as a forest city.  The widespread planting included slow growing native trees including oak, beech, pine, ash and horse chestnut as well as fast growing nursery stock such as poplar and willow.

The fast growing poplar and willow trees were planted to shelter the slower growing trees from wind and heat as they established themselves.

As part of an ongoing programme to look after borough tree belts and woodlands, there are a number of poplar trees that have been identified along Dawley Green Way that have now reached an age and size where they are liable to lose branches and it is time to remove them.  This will help the native trees to further establish and create part of the long term landscape of the borough.

Work to remove poplars from the tree belt along Dawley Green Way, between Old Park Roundabout and Dawley Bank Roundabout, is scheduled to start next week and is expected to take around three weeks to complete.  The tree belt along this stretch of road is made up of an estimated 1600+ trees and around 250 poplars are to be removed.

This will ensure our tree belts and woodlands are strong, healthy and sustainable and will in turn provide better habitats for wildlife. Nearby properties will also benefit from more daylight and, as the shorter native trees thicken, greater noise reduction from the road.

The benefits of this type of tree work can be seen in the nearby tree belt between Dawley Bank Roundabout and Heath Hill Roundabout, where work to remove poplars was undertaken about five years ago.  The native trees there have since flourished.

Here’s a short video of local tree officer Matt explaining more.

Wood from the removed poplars will be sold for biomass energy with the proceeds used to reinvest into environmental projects.  Next autumn, the tree team will see if there are any gaps to plant more native trees along the tree belt, as by then they will be able to see if the existing natives have seeded and established themselves.

idverde crews will be on site from Monday 4 November and will be working between 9am to 3.30pm on weekdays for three weeks. For safety reasons, the work will require a road closure along Dawley Green Way during the first week with a diversion in place and then a temporary traffic control system for the second and third weeks.

Letters are going out to local residents to let them know what is happening and explaining why the work is being undertaken.  Other stakeholders are also being advised.

For more information please email recycle.telford@telford.gov.uk.