Greater Manchester has secured funding from The Urban Tree Challenge Fund, matching existing resources, to plant both small saplings and large urban trees.
The Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF) is a £10m government fund for planting both large and small trees in and around towns and cities in England. The fund is being delivered by the Forestry Commission, as part of their work to expand woodlands and tree cover across England.
City of Trees has been co-ordinating the bid for Greater Manchester in partnership with the ten districts and registered housing providers.
In total over 2,500 trees will be planted across the city region. This includes 650 small sapling trees and just over 1,900 large, high impact trees.
The vast majority of the trees will be planted by March 2020. The larger trees will be over 2m in height and will take root in parks and green spaces across the City region as well as in grass verges by roadsides and in residential areas.
Last year charity City of Trees undertook the largest physical i-Tree survey of trees outside the United States to better understand the extent, function, and value of Greater Manchester’s urban forest.
The ‘All Our Trees’ survey found that Greater Manchester’s 11m plus trees lock up 56,530 tonnes of carbon and produce 122,450 tonnes of oxygen each year.
The data from ‘All Our Trees’ was used to provide justification for the need for tree planting especially large trees which deliver much greater benefits.
The new trees will also form part of the Northern Forest, an ambitious initiative to plant 50 million trees, stretching from Liverpool to Hull, within 25 years.
