£2.9 million to fund trees for local communities

The Woodland Trust has delivered a major green boost for communities across the UK by providing much needed funding for local authorities to plant trees and create green spaces.

The funding is being delivered from the charity's new Emergency Tree Fund which aims to make up for a current lack of investment to help local authorities break through barriers to get more trees and woods in the ground. The Woodland Trust says that it will give more local communities the green spaces on their doorsteps that are desperately needed, and which have shown to be so important for people during the current pandemic.  

Alongside the funding, the trust is working with 11 authorities across the UK in the first phase of the project and aims to expand the scheme further in 2022. This forms part of the charity’s recently announced ambitious aim to establish 50 million more trees by 2025 to help tackle both the nature and climate crises.

Glasgow City Region, which will host the COP26 international climate change conference later this year, is one of those receiving funding (£400,000), following a rigorous application process. Here eight councils are coming together to boost urban tree cover.

Sheffield City Council is another to be receiving funding (£183,319). Its aim to plant and protect trees in the city is a far cry from three years ago when the Trust joined local residents in a battle to stop it felling street trees. Now it has transformed its policies and is looking to use the fund to involve its many diverse communities in planting new trees and protecting others for the future.

The other councils to receive funding are: Belfast City Council (£289,585); Wokingham Council (£300,000); Cornwall Council (£293,965); Devon County Council (£297,349); Cardiff Council (£228,862); Bolsover District Council (£269,160); Wolverhampton Council (£129,500); and the Black Country Consortium (£175,000).

John Tucker, the Woodland Trust’s director of woodland outreach, said: “The Woodland Trust has launched an Emergency Tree Fund to provide vital funding to help make these green projects a reality.

“The Trust’s Emergency Tree Fund has the power to inspire tree planting and woodland creation and galvanise the need to treasure trees and green spaces in neighbourhoods across the UK. What the country’s fight against Covid has shown is how communities have come together in a time of crisis. As the pandemic hopefully abates, getting outside and planting, maintaining and enjoying trees will be a way for this spirit to be harnessed once again in a different but very important way - to tackle the climate and nature crises which also affect us all.”