Woodland Trust tee up Bradford City to green up training ground
Senior PR officer
Bradford City Football Club and the Woodland Trust have teamed up to show how easy it is for sports clubs to get involved in the charity’s hugely successful free trees scheme.
The UK’s largest woodland conservation charity’s Free Trees for Schools and Communities initiative has donated 154 trees to the club – a tree for every goal scored by Bradford’s men’s and women’s first teams last season.
Players including Joe Wright and Matt Pennington from the promotion-chasing League One English Football League (EFL) side swapped football boots for wellies and planted trees instead of headers to add shade and shelter, help prevent flooding and encourage wildlife to flourish at the club’s training ground.
Woodland Trust free trees senior project lead Steve Shill explained:
“We’ve got hundreds of thousands of trees to give away to schools and community groups, including sports clubs, from grassroots level to professional clubs like Bradford City.
“Bradford are having another great season on the pitch and it’s great to see they are also leading the way for nature off the pitch.
“Trees can really make a difference to training grounds. They help filter pollution, block noise, provide shade, stabilise the soil, fight flooding and give homes to wildlife.”
Bradford have just won the EFL’s Environmental Award for 2026 for their Greener Bantams project, which aims to create a greener and cleaner planet for future generations.
“We set up our first sustainability strategy in 2025 and part of that is supporting biodiversity and the vital relationship with nature,” said Adam Keizer, the club’s sustainability lead.
“Planting trees is a simple way to educate and inspire others with their relationship with the environment. This has been a great project to be involved in.”
The 2024/25 season was a bumper one on the pitch for the Bantams, with the men’s team promoted to League One and now in the mix for promotion to the Championship via the play offs.
But the mix of saplings provided by the Trust has already scored a win for wildlife and climate change thanks to a day’s planting by Bradford’s first-team players, academy players and staff – as well as pupils from neighbouring Woodhouse Grove School.
Shill said it was “wonderful” to see so many people link up “so enthusiastically’’.
“The day’s planting was great fun,” he added. “So many people got their hands dirty to get more trees in the ground, raise environmental awareness and help grow a healthier community.
“Trees are one of our best defences in the fight against the effects of climate change. But they are also invaluable for our health and wellbeing, with lots of studies suggesting that we're healthier and happier when around trees.
“There are hundreds of other training grounds around the UK with space for trees and all the benefits they bring. We’d urge other clubs to come forward – rugby, cricket, football or any sport or eligible group are welcome to apply.”
The Woodland Trust’s tree packs have been generously funded by lead partners Sainsbury's, Lloyds Banking Group and Simplyhealth. Applying is easy. For more information visit Free Trees for Schools and Communities.
Notes to editors
About the Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the UK with more than 500,000 supporters. With a vision of a world where woods and trees thrive for people and nature, today the Trust owns and cares for more than 1,000 woodland sites, covering around 33,000 hectares.
The Woodland Trust has three key aims:
- protecting the UK's rare, unique and irreplaceable ancient woodland
- restoring damaged ancient woodland, nurturing precious pieces of our natural heritage back to life
- establishing new native trees and woods to create healthy, resilient landscapes for people and wildlife.
Access to all Woodland Trust woods is free so everyone can experience the physical and mental benefits of trees.