Protecting the tree collection at Gardens: request for a TPO

We are writing to request that Bristol Planning Authority make an immediate Tree Preservation Order (TPO) to cover all the trees at the Bristol Zoo Gardens in Clifton.

We have been able to identify some 256 trees growing on and around the site, which we have mapped here – Bristol Zoo Gardens trees. However, we have only been able to identify the species and other key information about 73 of these trees. This is based on records we have extracted from a limited risk report undertaken for the zoo in September 2015.1 We have asked for the more complete historic surveys upon which this report is based but have yet to receive them.

The late Richard Bland has said that “It isn’t clear to me how well mapped the zoo’s trees are. … I have measured a number of the most significant ones but am very far from having a complete list”.

Richard Bland also included many of these trees in his survey of Bristol’s veteran, remarkable and champion trees. Four trees at the zoo are also recorded as champions in the Tree Register.

This is what the zoo said about its tree and plant collection in 2009:

• The plant collections at Bristol Zoo Gardens (BZG) are surprisingly complex and serve a wide variety of functions. • Bristol Zoo Gardens was opened in 1836 by the great and good of Bristol to study and display animals and plants and is a small city centre zoo of 4.8 Ha … to carry out our mission: To maintain and defend biodiversity through breeding ,

1 150907-1.0-Bristol Zoo Gardens Tree Risk and Condition Report 2015-PM

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conserving threatened species and and promoting a wider understanding of the natural world. • The plant collection(s) fulfil several functions in that they provide an attractive and immersive environment for zoo visitors, a setting for animals, and are used to put into practice mission-friendly environmental, conservation and education activities. The gardens are also a major attraction in their own right.

The local, national, and international context of the zoo’s plant collection.

The gardens have a high reputation and through them we seek to engage with the local community and wider horticultural and botanical communities. We aim to contribute and comply with various national and international strategies, policies and guidelines to carry out its mission.

Local activities:

• BZG maintains ornamental and amenity plantings such as the lawns, terrace bedding and herbaceous border displays, in order to inspire, attract and provide amenable and interesting surroundings for zoo visitors and horticulture students. • BZG plant collections are used to introduce contrasts, changing seasonal elements and interactive features into the zoo landscape. • The BZG plant collection is an important part of enclosure design and provides an immersive and attractive setting for animal exhibits. • Local plant and animal conservation projects are showcased with dedicated BZG plant exhibits and the gardens contribute directly to local plant conservations projects e.g. by growing on plants for re-introductions. • BZG plants enhance the biodiversity of the site and are used to highlight and promote mission friendly activities. • BZG engages with the city and surrounding area through participation in " In Bloom" and have helped Bristol City win RHS Gold medals in recent years. • BZG engages with the local community through plant displays and activities. • e.g. participation in Plant Conservation Day, the Bristol and the pumpkin and edible garden competitions. • BZG grows plants for fodder for the animals.

National activities:

• BZG maintains a nationally recognized collection of plants including "Champion Trees" that are recorded on the National Tree Register. We maintain and manage National Conservation Collection of Plants and Gardens/Royal Horticultural Society plant collections e.g. Caryopteris and Hedychium. • Our plant collections are used to help realise appropriate national initiatives such as the UK Plant Diversity Challenge and ISO14001 environmental standard. We also contribute to

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the work of the UK Plant Network and the Plant Working Group of the British and Irish Association of and Aquariums.

International activities:

• BZG contributes to Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and 2010 targets and the work of the European Zoo Horticulture Group through our plant collections and associated activities and exhibits e.g. Smarty plants, Plant Conservation Day and the nectar garden. • BZG is guided by the World Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Strategy. • The BZG garden landscape helps to offset our organisations carbon footprint.

The zoo website also said the following about the gardens when it offered a tour of them in the Autumn of 2016:

• … Bristol Zoo is an award-winning botanical garden. It contains an important collection of plants and a host of unusual trees and shrubs from around the world, such as the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana), tree ferns (Cyatheales sp.), rare Wollemi pine (Wollemia sp.) and the purple-berried flax lily (Dianella cearulea). • Eddie Mole, head of Horticulture: “Our tree collection is exciting and ranges from ornamental acers to centuries old cedars … We have carefully combined colour and texture to create stunning displays all year round. It’s thanks to over 180 years of nurture and gardening artistry that we have established these 12 acres of rare beauty and outstanding variety for our guests to enjoy.” • Autumn horticultural highlights at the Zoo include the bright reds, browns and yellows of the Japanese maple trees (Acer palmatum) around the stream garden; the beautiful yellow of the old ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba) in the hippo paddock; the apricot coloured leaves of the Katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) …

Paul Wood, the author of London's Street Trees: A Field Guide to the Urban Forest,2 who recently visited the zoo gardens, says “the trees at Bristol Zoo Gardens are some of the finest to be found in Bristol and are an exceptional collection that is nationally, and indeed internationally, important. There are dozens of individual trees in the Gardens that are noteworthy for their rarity, or as fine examples of their species. Several national 'Champion' trees have been recorded, and the collection as a whole is of immense value to the city for cultural, historic, and environmental reasons”.

It is clear from all this that both the gardens and the trees growing in them offer significant public amenity as well as providing substantial ecoservice benefits. They exactly meet the criteria that must be applied when considering whether to grant a TPO. These criteria are as follows:

• The extent to which trees are visible from the public realm (including to visitors to the zoo).

2 https://thestreettree.com/londons-street-trees-a-field-guide-to-the-urban-forest/

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• Their individual, collective and wider impact, including future amenity potential, rarity, cultural or historic value, relation with the landscape, and their contribution to the character of both the Clifton Conservation Area and to Bristol. This includes providing both a social and a personal sense of wellbeing or identity. • Their relevance for nature conservation and as a response the challenges of climate change.

Tree Evaluation Method for Preservation Orders (TEMPO)

The Bristol Planning Authority uses TEMPO when it is evaluating whether or not to protect a tree with a TPO.

Using its three-stage assessment process, we have assigned the following scores to the zoo’s tree collection:

Part 1: Amenity assessment Condition & suitability for TPO 5/5 Relative public visibility & suitability for TPO 4/5 Other factors 3/5 Part 2: Expediency assessment 3/5 Part 3: Decision guide (total score) 15/20

This is a conservative assessment but, on this basis alone, the grant of a TPO now is both justified and defensible.

Conclusion

Given the zoo’s plan to sell the site for housing development (albeit that the Bristol has told us that they plan to make the planning application rather than leaving it to any future developer), it has now become expedient for a TPO to be made as a precautionary measure.

We are aware that the trees are growing in the Clifton Conservation Area. However, this only offers limited potential protection: the default outcome of any application to remove a tree in a conservation area is that it will succeed once the six-week consultation period has expired, whether or not a decision has been made. A tree will only be saved if it is granted a TPO within that time.

We understand that a new survey of the trees growing on the site may soon be undertaken, no doubt in anticipation of any future planning application. However, we are concerned that, once a planning application is made, it will be too late for the trees to be protected if a TPO has not already been granted.

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As a matter of urgency, we ask the planning authority to make an Area TPO for all the trees growing on the site. This will not prevent the Zoological Society from proceeding with its plans but it will protect all the trees growing in and around the zoo gardens in the meantime.

Bristol Tree Forum

22 June 2021

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