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Chris Baines is one of the UK’s leading independent environmentalists. He trained as a horticulturalist at Wye College, Kent and then as a landscape architect in Birmingham. He is an award-winning writer and broadcaster, presented what is considered to be the first environmental series for children on UK TV in the early 1980s and was one of the original presenters of BBC Countryfile. His 2019 film documentary The Living Thames , made for the Thames Estuary Partnership, won the UK Charity Film Awards and has now won prizes at film festivals across 4 continents. His best-selling book How to Make a Wildlife Garden has been continuously in print for almost 40 years and his book The Wild Side of Town won the first UK conservation book prize in 1987.

Chris is self-employed and acts as an adviser to industry and government. He has worked widely with senior executives in the construction, energy, minerals, housebuilding and ethical investment industries and he currently chairs the Independent Stakeholder Advisory Group for National Grid and Ofgem.

Chris Baines is also an environmental campaigner with deep roots in the charitable sector and a long association with community-based environmental action. He helped to establish the UK’s first urban wildlife trust, in the West Midlands, at the end of the 1970s. He was landscape adviser for the Government’s Priority Estates Project in the 1980s. Through the 1990s he advised the Local Government Association, the Sainsbury Family Trusts, The Shell Better Britain Campaign and the New Homes Marketing Board on urban green infrastructure. More recently he served as an adviser on sustainability for the Greenwich Millennium Dome, the London 2012 Olympics athletes’ village, and the World Heritage city of Bath.

Chris has been a National Vice-President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts since 1986. He is currently an adviser to the National Trust, Hon President of the Thames Estuary Partnership, Hon Patron of the Countryside Management Association and he has been awarded lifetime-achievement medals from both the RSPB and the British Association of Nature Conservationists. He has played a leading role in the fields of environmental education and nature recovery throughout his career. He served as a Trustee of the National Lottery for six years and enjoys an international reputation as an environmental communicator and as a broker of cross-sectoral partnerships. He has always worked from his home in the West Midlands.

For more episodes in the Tree Lady Talks Archive click here.

Send us a Text Message.

For more episodes in the Tree Lady Talks Archive click here.

Send us a Text Message.

In this conversation, Sharon and Julian discuss the concept of biodiversity net gain and its unintended consequences, particularly in relation to the classification of veteran trees. They highlight the discrepancy between the definition of veteran trees in the National Planning Policy Framework and the definition in the Biodiversity Gain Requirements Regulations. Julian explains that the regulations' definition includes trees with common features such as significant decay, large girth, and high value for nature, which dilutes the exceptional value that should be associated with veteran trees. This creates confusion and potential conflicts in the classification and protection of trees. The conversation explores the challenges and implications of the new regulations regarding veteran trees in the UK. The speakers discuss the confusion around the identification of veteran trees and the different perspectives of arboriculturists and ecologists. They highlight the potential consequences of over-categorizing trees as veterans and the impact on land use planning and development. They also discuss the issue of root protection areas and the unintended consequences of excessive constraints. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the need for a balanced approach to tree preservation and the importance of considering future land use and biodiversity.

For more episodes in the Tree Lady Talks Archive click here.