Charity asks the public to help it plant 50m trees

Celebrating new woodlands

A CONSERVATION charity is pledging to plant 50m trees by 2025 to help tackle climate change.

The Woodland Trust is urging millions of people to join its “big climate fightback” by planting trees this November to build support to sustain the biggest planting campaign the country has seen, in the next few years.

The efforts come in the face of the impacts of Covid- 19, with tree planting rates falling despite the need to increase woodland cover to store carbon and tackle the climate crisis.

The charity is announcing a new “emergency tree fund” worth up to £ 1m to support local authorities to plant trees and create woods. The Woodland Trust’s Darren Moorcroft said: “Today I outline our commitment to establish 50m trees by 2025 to achieve our 10- year aim of a tree for everyone in the UK.”

IT IS cause for celebration that next month children across Yorkshire and the rest of the country will be getting their hands dirty by planting 600,000 trees, thanks to the Woodland Trust, which is sending out free saplings.

The trust’s drive to plant 50 million trees over the next five years to combat climate change should be applauded, not least because it is getting young and old alike involved in doing their bit, not just to benefit the environment, but to establish new woodlands that bring beauty and havens for wildlife wherever they are created.

This resonates especially with our county, which has embarked on much new tree- planting in recent years. We also have, in the person of Sir William Worsley, chair of the Forestry Commission and formerly the Government’s national tree champion, one of the most passionate and eloquent advocates of the benefits of woodlands. The trust’s programme deserves success.