City of Trees, the Community Forest for Greater Manchester, has planted nearly 40,000 new trees through their woodland creation programme this past year.
Working together with Greater Manchester’s ten districts, over 2091 larger ‘standard’ trees have been planted across the region. 32 standards were planted at seven fire stations across Greater Manchester, working alongside Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue to support their aims to green their own estate.
As a Community Forest, people are at the very heart of City of Trees’ work in Greater Manchester. The organisation’s flagship volunteering programme ‘Citizen Forester’ focuses on connecting people with trees and woodlands. Last year, the charity engaged over 1,400 members of the community in volunteering activities centred around trees – whether planting new saplings or maintaining newly planted or existing trees in woodlands.
This year, the organisation created woodlands at a record number of schools in the region, planting with nearly 3,900 children (mini Citizen Foresters) at 28 school sites across the region. City of Trees worked closely with the Manchester school, Parrs Wood High School and members of the local community, to plant a native mix of 1,133 trees. Establishing woodlands on school sites and planting with students helps to teach them about the benefits of trees and to create healthier, happier and more biodiverse learning environments. Due to the proximity to the River Mersey, newly planted trees on the site will manage future flood risk through intercepting rainwater to reduce or slow down the rate of run off, with native mix selection reflected this.
1,819 trees were also planted as part of multiple Citizen Forester volunteering days at Haslam Park in Bolton, to enhance the existing green spaces, helped by 51 adult volunteers and an impressive 212 children who came to help from local schools.
The announcement of City of Trees’ impacts for the year comes as the organisation shares their Urban Forest Plan for Greater Manchester, setting out how they will lead the way in increasing the city-region’s tree canopy cover from 15% to 17% over the next ten years. Using in-depth spatial data, the plan sets out where the most beneficial areas for tree planting area, in order to help make urban areas more resilient to the challenges of a rapidly changing environment, as well providing a collective guide for planting and managing Greater Manchester’s trees in the future.
The Urban Forest Plan sits alongside the launch of Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s new Local Nature Recovery Strategy, which City of Trees was a key contributor to, sharing their vision for a more biodiverse and resilient forest canopy and highlighting the collective commitment to an increase in canopy cover.
Beth Kelsall, Urban Forestry Manager at City of Trees, says:
“We’re delighted to have planted so many trees across the region this year. Our trees play an important role in tackling the climate emergency, that’s why we need to plant more trees, now. We have funding available to support landowners plant trees and create woodlands on their land. City of Trees has a wealth of knowledge and experience and is a trusted partner to plant millions of trees, so please get in touch with us to discuss how you can make a difference.”
Beth Kelsall, Urban Forestry Manager
The establishment of the new trees in the city-region has been made possible thanks to funding from Defra. City of Trees is part of England’s Community Forests, a diverse and growing network of 15 forests each working in partnership with their local communities, landowners, and businesses to help nature recover and regenerate the landscapes in and around our largest towns and cities.
Please visit https://www.cityoftrees.org.uk/take-action-as-a-landowner to learn about planting trees on your land.