The Heartwood site in Hertfordshire, where 600,000 trees have been planted. Image: The Woodland Trust
By Sarah Smith
The Woodland Trust is launching the UK’s largest mass tree planting campaign – urging the public to pick up their spades and act on climate change.
It will be planting 1000 trees in Horsforth as part of its campaign Big Climate Fightback, saying every tree counts. The event will be happening on November 30 on Calverley Lane from 10am-4pm.
Plastic Free NW Leeds said: “Trees are the ultimate multi-taskers, helping to combat the two environmental emergencies facing our planet: climate change and biodiversity loss.
“They absorb carbon, fight flooding, reduce pollution, nurture wildlife and make landscapes more resilient.”
The group will be joining forces with local councillors and other local community groups such as Horsforth litter pickers, Horsforth Walk of Art, Horsforth, Rodley and Calverley Wildlife conservation group.
The action has been sparked after the charity said it wanted to call out the Government for failing to meet its annual tree planting commitments.
The Big Climate Fightback aims to get more than a million people to pledge to plant a tree on the run up to a mass day of planting across the UK on November 30.
Emma Silverstone, a florist from Middleton, Leeds, said: “It’s a good idea, but I think not enough people know about this and how to battle climate change.”
The charity is bidding to plant a tree for every person in the UK by 2025. All the trees provided by the Woodland Trust will be UK sourced and grown native broadleaf varieties such as oak, birch and hawthorn.
In 2018 the Trust planted, gave away or sold 3,254,048 trees, creating some 1,714 hectares of woodland across the UK.
As part of the Big Climate Fightback, most trees will be planted at their Mead site in Derbyshire, near Heanor.
Andy Bond, senior PR officer said: “Most trees have been planted at our Heartwood site in Hertfordshire, where 600,000 trees were planted, creating the largest continuous new native woodland in the UK.”
Darren Moorcroft, chief executive at the Woodland Trust said: “Most people are aware of the race against time in terms of climate change and planting trees being part of the solution – they absorb harmful CO2 and produce vital oxygen. But we are not planting anywhere near enough.”
For more details about the Woodland Trust and the event, click here.