30 Mar The Woodland Trust is re-opening its ever-popular free tree packs scheme on the back of a record-breaking spring giveaway in the east of England
The Woodland Trust is re-opening its ever-popular free tree packs scheme on the back of a record-breaking spring giveaway which saw more than 80,000 saplings delivered across the east of England.
A total of 538 schools and community groups in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Suffolk took delivery of their trees from the end of February to 11 March, with the next round of applications back open for business on 4 April.
In the east of England, 80,310 trees were sent out to 538 organisations. This includes:
6525 trees to 42 organisations in Bedfordshire
6240 trees to 47 organisations in Buckinghamshire
11820 trees to 73 organisations in Cambridgeshire
15945 trees to 116 organisations in Essex
13320 trees to 86 organisations in Hertfordshire
9195 trees to 60 organisations in Norfolk
7650 trees to 55 organisations in Northamptonshire
9615 trees to 60 organisations in Suffolk
The figures for the east of England were part of a record-breaking spring UK-wide giveaway. Woodland Trust senior project lead Vicki Baddeley said surpassing the previous spring delivery record by just over 106,000 for a total of 623,910 trees was “wonderful”.
“We strongly believe everyone should have the opportunity to plant a tree, and our spring planters are really showing us how it’s done,” she added.
“We’re seeing such a wide range of motivations for communities to take the simple, positive action to plant trees. They’re getting their hands dirty to combat climate change, support local wildlife, green up their local spaces, boost their wellbeing, and celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee to name but a few!”
The trees were sent out as part of the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback where the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity encourages people to plant trees at events, at home and with their school or community to help fight climate change.
A total of 3,865 schools and community groups received packs and will be joining the fight by sharing their tree planting stories and photos with us on social media using #BigClimateFightback.
Our tree packs have been generously funded by lead partners: Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Bank, OVO Energy, DFS, Joules, Bank of Scotland and Sofology.
Baddeley added: “We couldn’t do this without the generosity of our funders so our thanks go out to each of them for their vital support. We would advise any interested groups to apply sooner rather than later to secure their saplings!”
“The appetite to plant trees is clearly growing as demand for our free trees scheme has never been stronger, so we can’t wait to open applications again on 4 April, when we’ll have a further 700,000 trees available for planting in the autumn.”
