Steering Group
Paul Wood is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group and one of the four founders of the Urban Tree Festival.
He is an artist and writer; the author of London’s Street Trees: A Field Guide to the Urban Forest (revised edition has just been published). London is a Forest (2019) and Great Trees of London Map (2020).
Visit Paul’s website at TheStreetTree.com and follow him on social media as @TheStreetTree.
He lives in London, and was a trustee of London Wildlife Trust until 2017.
Mel Sutton is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group and one of the four founders of the Urban Tree Festival. A yoga and meditation teacher, Mel has a health coaching practice in S.E. London. She trained in meditation with Chopra Global in California.
Mel devises creative outdoor mindfulness, leading groups into meditation and forest bathing. She is also a trained aromatherapist through Neal’s Yard, a homeopath and a flower essence practitioner. She has been commissioned by The Mayor Of London, The Woodland Trust and Trees for Cities teaching meditation tools.
Mel can be contacted through her website www.naturalhealthwithmel.co.uk
Mel teaches from her experiences as a meditator. “Entering into stillness and connecting with nature deepens our understanding of our true self, releases stress and anxiety and develops our intuition and creativity.”
“I am Andrew, the founder of the Museum of Walking, I love getting people outside amongst trees having fun. Unlocking one’s childhood experiences of laughter, joy and play. I use the characteristics of trees and their surroundings as a means to prompt creative thought, and encourage others to do the same, in tree treasure hunts and in composing poetry. I have devised walks and other events with several tree specialists, applying my own knowledge of urban ecology and design, bringing a fun element into each.”
Andrew Stuck is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group and one of the four founders of the Urban Tree Festival.
Neil Sinden is Director of CPRE London, a branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Previously he worked at Ruskin Land in the Wyre Forest, one of England’s most important woodland nature reserves. He is a trustee of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground; has been a trustee of Civic Voice, the umbrella group for local civic societies; and, until 2015, was CPRE’s national Director of Policy and Campaigns.
Neil worked at Common Ground in the 1980s on their ‘Trees, Woods and the Green Man’ programme, including launching an orchard conservation campaign and the first national Apple Day in 1990.
Neil Sinden is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group.
Peter Fiennes is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group.
Peter is the author of Oak and Ash and Thorn, a Guardian Best Nature Book of the Year. It tells the story of Britain's woods and trees: their myths, history and conservation challenges.
His latest book, Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers, is a Guardian Best Travel Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Award for Best Memoir. He was publisher at Time Out for many years, where he nurtured a lifelong love for cities, trees and guidebooks.
Simon Edwards (@TiCLme) is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group. He is founding Director of TiCL Media Ltd. He has worked in partnership with The Tree Council to create website and App software to help organisations create Tree Trails for visitors to their green spaces.
Carole Wright manages community gardens in her native South London, on social housing estates. Working with residents, Carole has set-up three community orchards on three estates in Southwark and created the Tom Carroll memorial tree trail supported by the Tree Council.
Carole has a lifelong passion for urban wildlife, a bee-keeper, who regularly leads greenspace walks in urban and woodland areas partnering with organisations who provide culturally and socially diverse programmes for lower income participants.
Carole is a Landscape Institute Ambassador and committee member of the London branch of the same organisation. Please follow her journeys on Twitter and Instagram: @Blak_Outside
Carole is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group.
Peter Coles is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group and one of the four founders of the Urban Tree Festival.
His global cultural history of the mulberry tree, Mulberry, is published by Reaktion Books (2019).
“I’m Peter. I’ve had a deep love of trees ever since I was a child, growing up on the edge of an ancient beechwood in the Chilterns. Having lived most of my adult life in cities, though, I’ve found the trees of the streets, parks, gardens and surviving pockets of woodland essential for my wellbeing. As a writer, researcher and photographer, I am particularly fascinated by old urban trees as witnesses to a past that may have been buried long ago under developments. This is why I helped to set up the Morus Londinium project to document, preserve and raise awareness of London’s mulberry trees and their fascinating heritage. Old mulberry trees always have a story to tell.”
Greg Packman is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group.
Greg is Senior Tree Inspector for the London Borough of Islington: covering Local Authority tree management and working with external clients such as Epping Forest, the Inner and Middle Temples, and Alexandra Palace. Formerly Greg worked as an Arboricultural Officer for the Royal Parks in London.
In addition, Greg leads regular tree walks and presents on a number of tree management issues; particularly London plane trees and Massaria disease of plane, of which Greg has internationally recognised expertise. Greg also sits on the London Tree Officer's Association Executive Committee and co-chairs the Ancient Tree Forum London group as well as being part of the London Tree Partnership. Greg was also part of Pro Landscaper magazines '30 Under 30: The Next Generation' award in 2018.
Anna Liu is a qualified architect with over 15 years of experience in architecture, art, and landscape. Her experience has encompassed work in China, Japan, the US, the UK, and in Taiwan where she was born. In her early career, Anna worked for Arup Associates in Hong Kong and in London, on projects such as Hong Kong Central Station and Manchester Stadium.
She set up Tonkin Liu with Mike Tonkin in 2002. Together they taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture for four years, exploring studies of patterns in nature and in human nature, an area they explored further years later with their students at the University of Westminster and at universities in Japan and Taiwan.
Anna Liu is a member of the Festival’s Steering Group.
