On 30^th November 2019 the Woodland Trust launched a new initiative to support tree planting across the UK: the Big Climate Fightback.

The importance of reforesting the UK has been reiterated in reports ranging from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change’s findings on meeting net-zero by 2050 to the Centre of Alternative Technology’s recently published strategy on national decarbonisation. The Woodland Trust’s goal of boosting national reforestation efforts by getting a million people planting trees across the UK comes at a crucial point for the country, and was one that we were happy to support.

On Saturday we joined thousands of people across the UK in planting trees in our local area. 25 volunteers from our Bristol office planted 852 trees in and around Trymside, a large open area surrounding the river Trym, which feeds into Bristol’s main river, the Avon. The area had been identified by Bristol City Council as having significant potential to improve its biodiversity through a carefully designed planting plan of native species. To restore the natural biodiversity of the area we planted alder, oak, hazel, dogwood, willow and birch trees.

Also included in the planting plan was a riparian area, next to the river, where trees will help create habitats and support river banks which are becoming eroded. Other areas were planted out to create woodland habitats, before finally planting some impressive specimen trees which will grow in the open grassland spaces.

As well as supporting the Big Climate Fightback programme, the efforts of our team contributed to our own carbon fund initiative. Throughout the year we set aside money to offset the carbon emissions we produce though our daily operations – subsequently spending it on green, environmentally positive and carbon-sequestering projects across the country. Most recently, our carbon fund has sponsored water fountains across Bristol and Manchester, as well as enabling us to plant thousands of trees across Bristol in recent years, with over 1,000 trees planted in February 2019 alone.

Find out more about the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback tree planting initiative by following the hashtag #everytreecounts on social media.