County Hall tree planting celebrates Queen's Green Canopy initiative

Trees have been planted at County Hall in Exeter as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative to celebrate the forthcoming Platinum Jubilee.

The commemorative planting by Devon County Council supports the call for everyone to ‘Plant A Tree for the Jubilee’.

Vice Lord Lieutenant Lady Arran, who, with four Deputy Lieutenants, is helping the Lord Lieutenant with the Queen’s Green Canopy, was joined by Deputy Lieutenant, Philip Jenkinson, Devon County Council Chairman, Jeff Trail BEM, and County Council Leader, John Hart.

It also coincides with National Tree Week (Saturday 27 November – Sunday 5 December) which aims to encourage people to celebrate and get involved in tree planting at the start of the winter planting season.

Lady Arran said: “We are delighted and proud that Devon County Council is leading by example and encouraging people across Devon to mark the Jubilee through tree planting. I would urge local authorities, businesses, schools, community groups and individuals to take part and register their tree planting on the interactive map on the Queen’s Green Canopy website.”

Devon County Council Chairman Jeff Trail BEM said: “This signals the start of an extensive programme of tree planting that the County Council is planning for the year ahead. This will include support for planting schemes through partner organisations and private individuals. We are about to distribute 70 free tree packs, to mark the 70 years of Her Majesty’s reign, each containing 45 trees, protective spirals and canes. These will be planted by landowners across Devon.”

The tree planting also helps to mark the start of the main delivery phase of the ‘Saving Devon’s Treescapes’ project, which is being led by Devon Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum, to support local communities to plant and nurture 250,000 trees across the county over the next four years. The aim is to address the huge loss of ash trees as a result of ash dieback tree disease. This project is being funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Devon County Council and a range of other partners.

It also coincides with the launch of the County Council’s ‘Emergency Tree Fund’project, which has been awarded £300,000 of funding by the Woodland Trust to enable the Council to demonstrate how tree planting might be accelerated across Devon to help address climate change, support nature recovery and counter the effects of tree diseases.

Through these projects and initiatives Devon County Council, Devon Wildlife Trust, the Woodland Trust and others will be providing practical advice and support to private landowners, community groups, schools, town and parish councils and others to help them to get involved in tree initiatives.

This includes newly published guidance to help in targeting the planting of the right trees in the right places, as well as identifying opportunities to obtain free trees or grants for tree planting.