Heart of England Forest and Wychavon District Council is pleased to offer Trees in the landscape for the first time, following the success of similar schemes in other districts. The trees are being funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and are available to landowners and communities within Wychavon.
Trees in the Landscape is headed up by the Trees Call to Action Project (a partnership between the Heart of England Forest and the district councils of Stratford, Wychavon and Warwick, aiming to increase tree cover across the three districts by working with local communities and landowners).
Emma Pestridge, a Trees Call to Action Project Officer, said, “We are really pleased to be able to offer free trees throughout Wychavon, following in the footsteps of similar successful schemes. We gave out 108 heritage fruit trees last year to communities and would love to help more local people and communities enhance the local landscape.”
Various tree packs are available, which allow the perfect species mix for each landscape, including hedgerow packs, fruit trees, and woodland packs. People can apply for anything from a single tree pack up to several. To celebrate Worcestershire’s great orchard heritage the scheme is focusing their efforts on Community Orchard, which are a wonderful asset to any neighbourhood.
The Trees Call to Action Project can also offer practical support for anyone looking to plant on a larger scale where they may need to undertake Environmental Impact Assessments, for example, if they want to grow on a woodland scale using the Government’s English Woodland Creation Offer grant.
If your land falls within the local authority boundaries and you would like to plant trees this coming winter, you can apply online (link removed)
The deadline for requesting trees is Sunday 3 November at 11pm. The trees will be available for collection on a specific day in December 2024 (depending on nursery lead-in times) and will need to be planted as soon as possible after being collected.
Date first published: 11 October 2024
Update: 29 October 2024
Update from Heart of England Forest: "We have been overwhelmed with applications which far exceeded our expectations." As such, applications have been closed.
