On Saturday 30th November, members of the local community joined the Woodland Trust in planting trees at Avoncliff Wood. The project was part of their Big Climate Fightback which aims to plant trees, save and revive woodland.
In December 2018, the Town Council gave a donation towards the purchase of Avoncliff Wood, and Cllr Alex Kay, Chair of the Town Council’s Environment and Planning Committee, (pictured below with her husband Simon Kay) was keen to go along and help the team of community volunteers with the planting.
The total trees the Woodland Trust are aiming to plant by the end of this week is an amazing 4000, 215 of which were planted by members of the community at last weekends’s session.
Cllr Alex Kay said:
“It was a wonderful day! Our team planted Hornbeam and Field Maple along with Hawthorn and Hazel shrubs in a corner of the field adjacent to the Woodland Trust‘s newly acquired ancient woodland. It’s imperative that we find as many ways as we can to combat climate change and on a local scale, planting trees is one of the most impactful things we can do.”
The Woodland Trust cites the following reasons why trees are so important in the fight against climate change in their position statement on ‘Trees and Carbon‘:
- The UK’s trees and woods are a valuable carbon store, as are the soils on which they stand.
- Trees have the virtue of removing atmospheric carbon dioxide as they grow, so helping counterthe effects of global warming.
- Trees deliver multiple co-benefits relevant to adapting to climate change, such as helping reduce urban heat island effects and mitigating river and surface water flooding, which themselves have a carbon cost.
- Trees are a sustainable source of materials that can be used as an alternative to carbon intensive materials such as steel and concrete.
- Trees can be a sustainable source of biomass energy, used as an alternative to fossil hydrocarbons.
- Whilst the ability of trees to sequester carbon is important it should not override the need to safeguard ecological value, particularly in terms of the appropriateness of planting locations and species selection.
- Deadwood, both standing and fallen, is a valuable ecological habitat.
If you would like to get involved with any of the Woodland Trust‘s tree planting sessions, or find out more about their work in general CLICK HERE.
