Almost 4,000 schools and community groups will be taking delivery of the free saplings. Whilst each group has its own reasons for planting, every tree will count towards the Trust’s campaign to help tackle climate change.
The Big Climate Fightback aims to get more than a million people to pledge to plant a tree on the run up to a mass day of planting across the UK on November 30. Everyone that applied for a tree pack will be added to the list of pledges.
The trees will be sent far and wide:
· England: 583,875 trees to 3,310 organisations
· Scotland: 69,855 trees to 339 organisations
· Wales: 44,145 trees to 212 organisations
· Northern Ireland: 20,190 trees to 87 organisations
· UK Total: 718,065 trees to 3,948 organisations.
The packs are generously funded by lead partners Sainsbury’s, players of People’s Postcode Lottery, Yorkshire Tea and Selfridges. In addition, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has supported the Trust to provide 100,000 trees a year to state funded primary schools in England over four years. DEFRA also funds four regional project officers to support schools to assist them with tree pack applications helping to increase the spread of green space improvement.
Since the initiative started in 2010, 9.6 million trees have been sent to schools and community groups keen to improve their local area.
Grown in the UK
Every tree has been UK sourced and grown as part of the Trust’s quality assurance scheme to guarantee the provenance of native trees. The scheme guarantees that trees from a number of nurseries marked with the UKSG badge are raised from seeds sourced only from the UK and grown in the UK for their entire lifespan.
The aim of t he scheme is to reduce the risk of importing pests and diseases with planting stock grown outside the UK.
All our saplings arrive with protection to give them the best chance of survival, and each pack comes with full instructions on planting and after care. We also direct all applicants to our Defra funded resource Tree Tools for Schools which has everything they need to plan, plant and care for their tree pack.
Apply for your trees at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/freetrees
To join the Big Climate Fightback and to pledge to plant a tree visit: www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/bigclimatefightback
