A SPECIAL tree planting took place last week to celebrate Helensburgh’s much-admired street trees becoming part of the National Tree Collection of Scotland.

The National Tree Collections of Scotland (NTCS) is a partnership initiative between the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Forestry Commission Scotland, and the Perth & Kinross Countryside Trust, and was set up in 2011 to help protect promote and enhance the wealth of tree collections that can be found across Scotland.

Project officer Tom Christian, explaining more about the new partnership with Helensburgh and why the town’s street trees are so important, said: “Since 2011 the NTCS network of sites has grown to include some of the most important and historic tree collections in Scotland – places like the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as privately owned collections like Scone Palace and Drumlanrig Castle.

"We’re delighted to be working with the town of Helensburgh through the Helensburgh Tree Conservation Trust.

"Urban tree collections are at last receiving more and more recognition for the extraordinary range of benefits they bring, from helping to mitigate air-pollution to positively impacting on mental health and anti-social behaviour.

"The work that the Trust has done here in Helensburgh over the past few years is exemplary, helping to manage an ageing urban tree population which is much loved by locals and visitors, and planning and planting for its future.

"This is a model that local authorities should be falling over themselves to replicate in other areas of Scotland – the town is certainly very lucky to have such a dedicated group of volunteers quietly getting on with some really important work, with long-lasting benefits, at a time when local authority budgets are under such pressure.”

The tree planted on July 6 is the first of 16 Serbian spruce trees that the trust will plant in West Rossdhu Drive.

These trees are grown from seed collected from some of the few remaining wild stands of this species in Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina by scientists from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s international conifer conservation programme (ICCP).

Since 1991 the ICCP has worked to integrate in-situ and ex-situ conservation of conifers, and works with a network of over 200 ‘safe-sites’ that hold collections of rare trees such as the Serbian spruce that are coming to Helensburgh.

This new partnership between the ICCP and the Helensburgh Tree Conservation Trust has been facilitated by the NTCS.

Martin Gardner, coordinator of the ICCP, said: “It is fantastic that through the work of the Helensburgh Tree Conservation Trust, we’re able to plant trees of such significance in the urban environment.

"Street trees are hugely important in our towns, but being able to use this material, collected from wild forests, gives added scientific and conservation value that will diversify and enrich Helensburgh’s tree population for years to come."

Since it was established in 2002 the Helensburgh Tree Conservation Trust, which has more than 200 members in the town, has raised funds to plant more than 2,000 new trees, gradually replacing those that had died or were in terminal decline due to old age.

Anyone interested in the work of the Trust, or who wishes to support it and become a member, should visit www.treetrust.co.uk.