Have a look at our Spring Newsletter 2024 and read all about the brilliant projects that are happening across Cornwall!
Find out more about the brilliant work of the Community Tree Nurseries
We've captured some of the work of the community tree nurseries that are being supported with the help of the Woodland Trust Emergency Tree Fund. These nurseries are growing trees from locally collected seed with the help of volunteers and community groups. Have a look at these videos to learn more about the work at Bolghen Community Tree Nursery and Kehelland Trust.
Four Fantastic Winners for our new Cornwall Sustainability Award
We have joined up with the Woodland Trust and the Forestry Commission to give a new award at this years' Cornwall Sustainability Awards. The new category is called Growing Greener: Planting Trees in Cornwall. It celebrates the private or community organisation, or landholder that has contributed the most to tree planting in Cornwall this year. The worthy winners were:
- First place: The Grower
- Second place: Arbor Farm
- Third place: Bolghen Community Tree Nursery
- Special commendation: Gaia Trust
Congratulations from all of us for your incredibly hard work, engagement, and innovation. It has made a major contribution to increasing tree canopy across Cornwall.
Thank you also to all the brilliant applicants for this award. The judges had a very difficult time choosing the winners! You can find out more about these fantastic groups and organisations on the Cornwall Sustainability Awards website.
Focus on Orchards
On 22 November the team held a special workshop along with the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG). This was hosted by Haywood Cider Farm. 30 orchard enthusiasts joined us at the cider barn. We had informative talks and pruning and management workshops in the orchards. The talks looked at details such as species choice, root stock, and local climate considerations. We will be holding more of these events so get in touch if you would like to attend.
Contact us if you would like some support or to discuss a project.
1000's of free trees have been given away this winter
The Back Garden Forest project, funded by the Woodland Trust, has given away over 5000 free trees to residents this winter. These have taken place in Truro, Penzance, Newquay, Camborne, Torpoint, Liskeard, Bude, Falmouth and Saltash.
This video shows the Falmouth Art Gallery tree giveaway on 23 October.
To celebrate National Tree Week there was also a community planting day at Prislow Fields in Falmouth on Saturday 25th November. We planted a new mini forest to commemorate Armed Forces Day. This was done with the help of residents and volunteers from local company Watson Marlow. A former landfill site at Saltmill Park, Saltash was also planted with 57 trees. This was part of the Urban Tree Challenge Fund. On Saturday 2nd December, volunteers from Tree Saltash, Groundwork and the community joined together to get trees in the ground. Fifteen more parishes also planted a Landmark Tree. This now means that 115 parishes across Cornwall have taken part. Additionally 42 Women's Institutes joined in to plant trees of their choice in their local area.
Thanks very much to everyone involved for their hard work in making these projects happen.
The Gilly Girls from Falmouth Women's Institute plant a tree in Tregoniggie Woodland.
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.”
Forest for Cornwall reaches a key milestone!
The project has now supported the planting of more than 650,000 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 you planted trees? Add a pin to our interactive map or Contact Us to let us know.
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 supported 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.
The Cornwall National Landscape (formerly the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) 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.
