National Tree Week 2023
National Tree Week is here (25th November - 3rd December). Celebrate by getting involved in tree planting in your local area.
Collect a Free Tree to plant in your garden!
Our Back Garden Forest project, funded by the Woodland Trust, will be giving away a free tree to residents in the following locations this winter. So far we have given away over 4,000 trees in Truro, Penzance, Newquay, Camborne, Torpoint and Falmouth.
- Darite (nr. Liskeard) - Saturday 9th December at the village hall 10am to 1pm
- Bude - Friday 15th December at the Crescent car park next to the Bude Visitor Centre, 1pm to 3.30pm
- Saltash - 13th January 2023 on Fore Street (junction of Wesley Road) 10am-12am.
This video shows the Falmouth Art Gallery tree giveaway on 23 October.
There is also the community planting day at Prislow Fields, Falmouth on Saturday 25th November, 10.30-2.30. We are planting a new mini forest to commemorate Armed Forces Day. Spades and gloves will be provided, and tea, coffee and cake to thank you for your hard work!
Volunteers are also welcome to help plant trees at King George V Playing Field in Four Lanes on Wednesday 29th November at 12am. You can also pick up a free tree to take home. Tools and equipment will be provided. Please register at environment@cormacltd.co.uk
A former landfill site at Saltmill Park, Saltash are planting 57 trees as part of the Urban Tree Challenge Fund. Join the volunteers from Tree Saltash, Groundwork and the community on Saturday 2nd December.
15 parishes will also be planting a Landmark Tree, and Women's Institutes across Cornwall will be joining in to plant in their local area.
Local tree nursery is the first in Cornwall to receive Plant Healthy Certification
The Grower, a bareroot hedging and tree nursery, based outside of St Agnes, has received Plant Healthy Certification. This is the first tree nursery in Cornwall to receive this recognition.
Chris King of The Grower said “It’s fantastic that we’ve been able to achieve our Plant Healthy Certification this year. It’s a massive achievement for the team and shows the hard work they’ve put in over the last 12 months. In 2022 we became accredited with the Woodland Trust UKISG scheme and have aspired to become accredited with Plant Healthy since. We couldn’t have done it without the support of the Forest for Cornwall team and Tree Nursery Health Fund... The Plant Health certificate allows us to demonstrate to our customers we are producing plants to the highest plant health and environmental standard. We are incredibly proud.”
Interested in the benefits of Agroforestry?
Have a look at our new case study videos which outline the many ways that agroforestry can benefit farmers and landholders:
Forest for Cornwall reaches a key milestone!
The project has now supported the planting of more than 600,000 trees since the launch of the project! That's one tree for every resident of Cornwall. This means that over 600 hectares of trees have been planted in woodlands, parks, community green spaces, gardens and farms. The team now aim to plant a million trees by 2025.
Councillor Martyn Alvey, Cornwall’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, said:
“Everyone who has put on their wellies and helped put trees in the ground or planned activities for our Forest for Cornwall should be really proud that they contributed to this important project to tackle climate change and bring more nature into our communities. Reaching more than 600,000 trees across Cornwall is no mean feat and I want to thank everyone for doing their bit for the Forest for Cornwall."
Each tree on the map indicates a tree planting. This could be one tree in a garden or thousands to make a new woodland.
Have a look at our Autumn 2023 Newsletter and find out about our latest news and upcoming events
1000 Trees planted by Wildanet, with more to come
South West broadband company Wildanet, along with volunteers, has planted a new woodland of 1000 trees at Cabilla on Bodmin Moor. They are leading the way in showing how local businesses can invest in nature in Cornwall. Have a look at the video of the planting day for inspiration on how you and your business can contribute to the Forest for Cornwall:
Latest Community Projects
Through the Woodland Trust funded 'Forest for My Place' project, Forest for Cornwall has been supporting local communities to plant trees in a variety of different ways. These two new case study videos show the great work that has been happening:
National Plant Health Week
For National Plant Health Week (8 to 14 May) 2023 the team at F4C are supporting local community and commercial nurseries to supply healthy trees for local tree planting projects.
Cornwall and the rest of the UK have been badly affected by a number of diseases that affect our favourite trees. This includes Phytophora pluvialis affecting Douglas fir and larch in the Glynn Valley and ash dieback which now affects the whole county.
In order to reduce the risks of imported and diseased trees being planted, F4C are exploring ways we can support businesses and communities to plant healthier tree stock.
We are supporting a number of local commercial tree nurseries with capital grants that will help with biosecurity. This includes the provision of cleaning stations, quarantine areas, and equipment to help with record keeping and labelling to improve traceability. We are encouraging and supporting these nurseries to apply for Woodland Trust’s UK and Ireland Sourced and Grown status.
You can help! If you go walking in woodlands and green spaces, make sure you clean off wellies and bike tyres to prevent the spread of diseases to new areas. You can also report any health issues to the Forestry Commission’s Tree Alert service, and the Observatree site has excellent images and descriptions of pests and diseases to help.
Get your 'I'm supporting Forest for Cornwall' badge for emails and documents or for sharing on social media!
Joint Working in Action!
A new orchard of apple trees have been planted in Wadebridge thanks to the hard work of:
- Camel Community Supported Agriculture
- the local community
- Cornwall Council's Carbon Neutral Cornwall team
Forest for Cornwall was very happy to help by funding the selection of old Cornish apple tree varieties. The group were blessed with beautiful planting weather. They are now looking forward to the delicious fruits that will also contribute to their future vegetable boxes. They celebrated the event with a traditional Cornish Wassail:
National Tree Week 2022
National Tree Week (NTW) is the UK’s largest annual tree celebration, marking the start of the winter tree planting season (November to March each year). Across the country events bring people together to celebrate and plant trees.
We have started the season with a flurry of events and tree planting. Thanks to everyone for all their contributions that made the week such a success. These are some of our highlights:
New Tree and Nature Hub opens at Heartlands
Forest for Cornwall celebrated the opening of our new Tree & Nature Hub at Heartlands, Pool. The venue was officially opened by Cllr Martyn Alvey (Cabinet member for Environment and Climate Change) and Rosie Walker (from the Woodland Trust). We were also joined by local councillors and residents, who all enjoyed the new hub.
As part of the day 122 trees were planted in this much loved community space by our Tree Warden group and local residents. We hosted a workshop that included practical tuition on tree planting followed by a busy afternoon getting the trees in the ground. The weather was perfect, and fuelled by pasties everyone worked extremely hard to get the trees well planted across the site. A big thank you to all the volunteers!
New Funds Launched for Farmers and Landholders
Cabilla Cornwall provided the perfect venue for spreading the news of our Woodland Creation Partnership (WCP) funds for landholders, farmers and businesses.
We were joined by many organisations (including the Forestry Commission, Westcountry Rivers Trust, National Farmers Union, South West Water and Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) to share how we all are supporting people to plant trees across Cornwall. The event provided a unique opportunity to ask questions, share knowledge and network. We were very pleased to have talks from Bridget Whells (NFU Chair) and Steve Chamberlain (Nancarrow) who both spoke about their experiences of starting out with agroforestry projects.
In the afternoon our host, Merlin Hanbury-Tennison, led the group on a fascinating tour of the woodland creation projects that are being carried out at Cabilla, alongside the protection and enhancement of the rare temperate rainforest areas.
For further information please go to our Woodland Creation Partnership page or Contact Us.
Saltash local community group 'Tree Saltash' organises multiple plantings with Forest for Cornwall
Our community project officer Meike Weiser has been working with Tree Saltash to secure permission and suitable planting sites in the town, also ensuring that the right tree was chosen for the location. The trees were staked using hessian tree ties which means that the plantings were also completely plastic free! The enthusiastic team had blue skies on the day and were rewarded by the positive feedback from all the passers by, happy to see trees being planted in their local area. In a project headed by the Town Council, with library manager David Orton, a crab apple was also planted beside the library by children from St. Stephens School. And at Jubilee Green an English oak was planted by Saltash and District Royal British Legion in commemoration of the Queen; this will partner the oak planted for the Jubilee earlier in the year. Tree Saltash have more planting planned so please contact them if you would like to help!
The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) team have produced a fantastic leaflet on the importance of our Cornish hedgerows. It shows how essential they are to our landscape for biodiversity, habitats and shelter.
Woodland Creation Partnership funding
Forest for Cornwall has been successfully awarded new funding from Defra - read more about this on our Woodland Creation Partnership Funding page and see how it can help you plant trees.
Forest for Cornwall Newsletters
Need help?
Most issues can be resolved online, it's the quickest and most convenient way to get help.
Use our contact us form- Forest for Cornwall
- Forest for Cornwall Programme Team
Pydar House
Truro
TR1 1XU
