Ambitious Target of 50M Trees Branches Out

The Northern Forest stretches from Liverpool to Hull and will cost £500M to complete. Since it launched in 2018, 2.1M new trees have gone in the ground. Good news came in 2019 when Defra joined forces with the partnership that is delivering the new forest to launch a £2.1m innovation fund. The pot of money will match-fund council-led and corporate-funded planting schemes. 

Carl Smethurst project manager for The Mersey Forest, a partner in the scheme, says:

'Large planting schemes form the backbone of the target of 50 million trees. But when it comes to the Northern Forest, smaller schemes are just as welcome. In addition to council land such as parks and other publicly owned land such as hospital grounds, we are appealing to businesses that have land and space where we can plant trees to get in touch."

Already The Mersey Forest has used the funding to plant almost 62,000  trees as part of the Northern Forest. Projects include more than 32,000 trees in Lyme and Wood Country Park near St.Helens.

There is an intention to plant a further 12,000 trees at small woods in green spaces across Liverpool; already more than 900 new saplings have gone in the ground at Princes Park in the city. Over in Derbyshire, more than 700 trees were planted on a farm natural flood management site near New Mills.  Carl adds:

"Any landowner can play a role in helping grow the Northern Forest. All public and privately owned land qualifies if it is suitable for planting. We've even seen businesses that have no land purchase a concession from a farmer to create 40 hectares of woodland."

Woodland cover in the north of England is 7.6% - well below the national average. More trees will help store thousands of tonnes of carbon, as well as providing a whole host of other benefits. Creating the Northern Forest has never been more necessary for sustainability.

The Northern Forest is a partnership between the UK's largest woodland charity The Woodland Trust and four community forests  - Manchester's City of Trees, the Mersey Forest, HEYwoods and the White Rose Forest in East and West Yorkshire respectively. 

To find out more please drop a line to mail@merseyforest.org.uk with your contact details