I am the Senior Development Manager at Trees for Cities, responsible for building partnerships and projects for the charity across England. Having originally studied zoology with a sense of saving nature 'over there', my path has taken me to urban trees and the nature outside our front door.

With some of the lowest tree canopy cover in Europe, and a highly urbanised population, the UK's urban trees provide the most immediate environmental benefits to most of us. However, a common obstacle I've encountered is the siloed nature of work within council authorities and the additional challenges this brings. As global environmental changes become ever more locally felt, our urban forests play a frontline role in addressing these threats.

We must act now to better bring people together and ensure thriving urban forests that can deliver against climate change. Cities are tapestries requiring multiple actors to collaborate to achieve a shared outcome, and I have seen how successful urban forestry programmes have been in the USA. I want to learn how these cities got their urban trees 'up the agenda', such that these actors came together and silos were overcome.