North East landscape takes shape with tree planting
Around 200 local volunteers, with help from 70 members of the Durham Army Cadet Force - as part of the Cadet150 Anniversary celebrations - planted a mammoth 5,000 trees in little over two hours at the Woodland Trust’s Low Burnhall site last Saturday, March 27th.
The public tree planting brought to an end a week of events at the 168 acre site, which now has seen over 20,000 trees planted since the Woodland Trust were given the green light at the beginning of March.
Local schools were on site planting throughout the whole of last week and local dignitaries and funders attended on Friday to find out how the Trust planned to develop the site and get stuck in themselves.
Attendees included Councillor Dennis Southwell and Elspeth Southwell, Mayor & Mayoress of Durham, MP Roberta Blackman-Woods and guests from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Forestry Commission, TK Maxx, County Durham Environmental Trust and the Shears Foundation.
Site manager Gary Haley was thrilled with the turnout: “To see so many people turn up on Saturday and get stuck in was especially heartwarming. We want local people to embrace the site and really make it their own and to have so many people attend the first planting is tremendous.”
He continued: “We’ve still got another 60,000 trees to plant in the next couple of years so we hope that everyone will continue to visit, take part and watch the site develop into beautiful native woodland.”
The site was purchased at auction in March 2008, the total project cost coming to £1.5 million, which covers creating the new wood, improving access for the local population and involving thousands of local school children. To find out how you can get involved visit:
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/wood/low-burnhall
Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, email: media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.