Sharing key evidence with us for tree planting
Before we can supply your trees there are a few bits of essential information we need to know. Our trees are provided through Defra and for their records they want to know where the trees are going to be planted. This guide should help you supply everything we need. Once this is done, we will process your order.
1. Grid Reference / GPS Coordinates
The most straightforward way to obtain coordinates – or the latitude and longitude – for your planting area/s is to use Google Maps. Locate your site on the map, then right click (or Control + click on a Mac) to bring up a short menu. The numbers at the top of this list are your coordinates, and you can select to copy them to the clipboard. Your coordinates will comprise two decimal numbers – for example, 51.501050 , -0.14245043. Be aware that the longitude (i.e. the second number) is likely to be preceded by a ‘-‘ sign in most of the UK that is west of Greenwich.
It is also possible to obtain an OS grid reference using Ordnance Survey’s website for free and without registering. Simply access the map viewer (explore.osmaps.com), locate your site and right click / Control-click to bring up the grid reference which can be copied and pasted into our webform. The grid reference will consist of two letters and ten digits – for example, TQ 29030 79648.
2. Map of planting area
This can be a screenshot of a Google map, as above, or a similarly detailed map format. To help us understand your project please include an X at the point where you took your photographic evidence (see point 3). Arrows can help indicate the direction the photo is taken in.
3. Photographic evidence.
Please submit at least one photo of the wider planting area, but the more photographs the better. Please remember we have never been to this site and need to be clear about the planting location. A couple of photographs can give us all the information we need. Please note Google Maps Street View is not suitable for this. The following photos are taken from all the spots marked with pink crosses in the image above. To give you an example of what we need, the first photo I have taken captures the whole length of the planting area.
The second and third photo are taken from either end of the planting area to give some perspective. In both pictures there are landmarks such as the footpath, significant trees, a way marker, a fence. Once I have done my tree planting I can go back to this area and take follow up photos with the same landmarks in.
