East Midlands going green, with 31,000 trees

The Woodland Trust's last mass distribution of trees for the 2017/18 planting season is well underway.
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Following a few days’ delay due to the recent snow, more than 1,100 schools and community groups across the UK are now taking delivery of some 352,830 saplings - with 280,650 in England alone.

In the East Midlands, 31,185 trees are being sent out to 159 organisations, including 5,145 trees to 29 organisations in Lincolnshire.

The free trees are funded by Sainsbury’s, IKEA FAMILY, players of People’s Postcode Lottery and Yorkshire Tea.

In addition, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has supported the Trust to provide 100,000 trees a year to state funded primary schools in England over the next four years.

Director of Woodland Outreach, John Tucker, said: “Once again, the number of people applying for our free trees has blown us away.

“We are thrilled that people continue to want to plant with us.

“We have an ambitious target to plant 64 million trees by 2025 and we have made a very good start towards this.

“We love to see people acting as guardians of our trees, valuing, protecting and celebrating their contribution to the communities in which they grow.”

The packs that have been going out this week contain a mix of native species such as hazel, rowan, hawthorn, common oak, silver birch, wild cherry, elder, dogwood and holly.

They come in packs of 30, 105 or 420 – enough to plant a small copse or hedgerow or to cover an areas the size of a football pitch.

They are sent out twice a year in November and March - the start and end of the planting season.

• Since the free tree pack initiative started, five million trees have been sent to schools and four million to community groups.