Getting Trees Planted Locally
Well over one million trees have been planted so far in the Forest of Avon, your local Community Forest. This includes school and community orchards, large street trees, community woodlands and larger farm woodlands. Combined, they provide a huge range of local and national benefits.
The need to lock up more carbon to mitigate climate change and ash dieback disease (which could kill 15% of local trees), mean that we need to redouble our effort to plant more trees as soon as we can.
Trees take time to establish and provide benefits so every year lost now is critical to future generations of trees and people.
Bristol City Council have pledged to double tree cover and have declared an Ecological and Climate Emergency. Bath City Council have also declared a Climate Emergency.
Various organisations and authorities across the West of England, as well as us, are working together to double tree cover, establish more trees in areas of low tree cover and where they are needed to reduce flood waters and air pollution.
Over the next ten years, we at the Forest of Avon Trust aim to plant as many trees as we can across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. This requires everyone in the community to support this work in whatever way they can. If everyone in the region planted (or helped plant) up to 3 trees each, we could reach our optimum tree cover!
We aim to plant at least another 500,000 trees by 2030. We will be providing data showing trees planted each year and are working on how we can show all the different tree planting happening across the region. We realise as well that many local groups are planting trees as well and this is wonderful and we want to develop the ways we can support this work too.
To give an idea of broad costs - £10 plants and provides long-term care for what is classed by foresters as a 'small' tree but which is a standard native tree (such as field maple, birch, rowan, hawthorn, dogwood, gelder rose, hazel) which will grow several metres tall, £35 pays for an orchard fruit tree planted at a local school and £325 pays for a street tree (these are generally planted by local councils). We also plant many tree-formed hedgerows with hedgerow trees (trees spaced along the hedgerow).
However, what these costs do not take account of is all of the work involved around the tree planting which includes identifying sites through a variety of methods and long term reputation building, surveys, advice, woodland management work, biodiversity surveys, running costs, planning, regional strategies and seeking and administering funding.
We'll be updating this page across the year to show you our planting plans and projects in more detail.
Great Avon Wood
Planting starts at what we believe to be the West of England’s largest new woodland on record!
We recently announced the exciting news of our biggest project to date, Great Avon Wood.
In partnership with Avon Needs Trees, we have have worked together to secure over 100 acres of land near the village of Pensford. Over the next three years, volunteers will help to plant and care for 40,000 trees supplied by the Woodland Trust. Great Avon Wood will consist of three linked woodland sites and we are now inviting people across the region to help plant this new woodland.
You sign up at Avon Needs Trees’ website Volunteering - Avon Needs Trees, with planting days taking place on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays throughout February and March 2023.
Other ways to get involved.
To donate to the Great Avon Wood - get in touch with Alex, Director at alex.stone@forestofavontrust.org - we will be setting up a giving page specifically for the Great Avon Wood project shortly.
Organise a corporate volunteering day through our partner Avon Needs Trees: https://avonneedstrees.org.uk/support-us/business-supporters/
Carbon Offsetting with Trees
Contact us to discuss this in more detail. Whilst we like to promote the wider benefits of trees and the huge benefits to people living in this area, we understand that many companies and individuals seek to plant trees with the aim of offsetting some or all of their carbon use.
If you are a landowner, the Woodland Carbon Code and other organisations can provide additional funds for woodland creation and we can broker arrangements between landowners and these third parties where relevant. Where a robust methodology is used to calculate carbon use and the Woodland Carbon Code is used to calculate its uptake by trees, we may be able to accept donations and pass these on to landowners, provided the offset is not double-counted. Donations need to reflect the whole life costs of planting and establishing trees.
To find out more about any aspect of woodland or tree planting, email alex.stone@forestofavontrust.org
Do you Have Land Which Could be Planted?
If you are a business, school, community organisation or other landowner who would like to have trees planted on your land, we will use our contacts and expertise to work with you and hopefully make this happen. Interested? Email alex.stone@forestofavontrust.org