THE Woodland Trust plans to break its record of giving away more than 1.3 million free trees to schools and communities in 2023.

Almost 9,000 schools and community groups benefited this year, and The Woodland Trust senior project lead Vicki Baddeley hopes even more schools and groups will take up the offer of free saplings and get planting in the coming year.

She said: “This year our communities have really felt the impact of climate change first hand, and many are seeing the incredible benefits trees can bring to provide much needed shade, shelter, and help to prevent flooding.

“By offering the free packs we aim to equip our schools and communities with a simple yet mighty tool to combat the effects of climate change, as well as provide ever more vital food and habitats for local wildlife.”

Baddeley added: “I am confident we can do even better in 2023 and deliver every one of the 1.4m saplings available.”

The free tree packs scheme delivered more than 623,000 saplings to 3865 organisations in spring this year with 506,415 trees sent to organisations in England.

Tree packs have been funded by lead partners and includes Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Bank, Ovo Energy, DFS, Joules, Bank of Scotland and Sofology.

Baddeley said: “We couldn't do this without the support and generosity of our funders. We have great backing, and our thanks go out to each of them for their vital support.

“The desire to plant trees is growing all the time and we expect demand for our free trees to be even greater this time out.

“There will be 600,000 saplings up for grabs in the spring round of applications and I have no doubt they will go quickly so I would advise any interested groups to apply sooner rather than later to secure their saplings."

For more information, visit The Woodland Trust’s website.

 

Get more Salisbury news. 

You can also like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date, as well as signing up for one of our newsletters.

If you want online news with fewer ads, unlimited access and reader rewards - plus a chance to support our local journalism - find out more about registering or a digital subscription.

Email newsdesk@salisburyjournal.co.uk with your comments, pictures, letters and news stories.