Pupils to mark National Tree Week and 'Big Climate Fightback' with planting

A tree planting demonstration will be carried out in the grounds of County Hall to mark National Tree Week (Saturday 23 November – Sunday 1 December) and support the Woodland Trust’s “Big Climate Fightback”.

Pupils from St Leonard’s Primary School and representatives from the Devon Youth Parliament will be helping to plant ten trees on Friday 29 November.

The aim is to promote tree planting to tackle climate change and also raise awareness of the importance of acting now to replace trees lost to Ash dieback and other diseases.

The trees being planted at County Hall will be a selection of native broadleaved species to support wildlife and enhance the grounds, including oak, small-leaved lime, rowan, wild cherry and the related ‘Mazzard’ cherry, a speciality of North Devon.

Members of Devon Youth Parliament will also be at County Hall on Friday (29 November) hosting a series of workshops to enable young people from schools across the county to contribute their ideas to the Devon Carbon Plan.

Peter Chamberlain, Devon County Council’s Environment Manager, said: “Devon County Council is extremely proud to be supporting National Tree Week Tree and the Big Climate Fightback. We're committed to reaching our net zero carbon emission targets and while the planting in the grounds of County Hall is not on a large scale it's still extremely important in demonstrating what we need to achieve collectively in Devon.

“It's great that local school children will be lending us a hand and helping improve their local environment. Representatives from the Devon Youth Parliament will also be involved, directly following a schools conference on Climate Change being held at County Hall that day. We're hoping to see much more of this community involvement in tree planting across the county if the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum’s ‘Saving Devon Treescapes’ project successfully receives funding.”

Devon Wildlife Trust on behalf of the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum, has submitted a £2.4 million bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for a major project to plant 250,000 new trees in the county, outside of woodland areas.

Devon County Council and the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum are also encouraging town and parish councils to register their interest in planting a free landmark tree in a prominent, publicly accessible place, to commemorate the loss of ash trees. The Council is also offering a limited number of free packs of 45 sapling trees to landowners, in association with the Woodland Trust. Find out more about these free tree schemes via the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum website.

Landowners looking to plant more than 500 trees can access grants and funding schemes through the Woodland Trust, which also offers a range of free tree packs to schools and communities. Find out more via the Woodland Trust’s website.

The Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum is also promoting the 3:2:1 tree planting formula. This encourages organisations and landowners to plant at least three new trees for every large one lost to Ash dieback, two for every medium sized one, and one for each small one.

Information, advice and support about Ash dieback in Devon can also be found at the Devon Ash Dieback Resilience Forum website.