South East plays part in tree send out as free tree pack scheme re-opens

The Woodland Trust is re-opening its free tree packs scheme on the back of a record-breaking spring giveaway which saw more than 75,000 saplings delivered across the south east of England.

A total of 495 schools and community groups in Greater London, Kent, London, Surrey and Sussex took delivery of their trees from the end of February to 11th March, with the next round of applications back open for business on 4th April.

In the south east, 75,735 trees were sent out to 495 organisations. This includes:

• 7,065 trees to 55 organisations in Greater London
• 26,040 trees to 147 organisations in Kent
• 8,880 trees to 83 organisations in London
• 13,605 trees to 75 organisations in Surrey
• 20,145 trees to 135 organisations in Sussex

The figures for the south east of England were part of a record-breaking spring UK-wide giveaway. Woodland Trust senior project lead Vicki Baddeley said surpassing the previous spring delivery record by just over 106,000 for a total of 623,910 trees was wonderful.

“We strongly believe everyone should have the opportunity to plant a tree, and our spring planters are really showing us how it’s done,” she added.

“We’re seeing such a wide range of motivations for communities to take the simple, positive action to plant trees. They’re getting their hands dirty to combat climate change, support local wildlife, green up their local spaces, boost their wellbeing, and celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee to name but a few!”

Schools and community groups received free tree packs

The trees were sent out as part of the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback where one of the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity encourages people to plant trees at events, at home and with their school or community to help fight climate change and create new havens for wildlife.

A total of 3,865 schools and community groups received free tree packs and will be joining the fight by sharing their tree planting stories and photos with us on social media using #BigClimateFightback.

The free tree packs have been funded by lead partners: Sainsbury’s, Lloyds Bank, OVO Energy, DFS, Joules, Bank of Scotland and Sofology.

Vicki Baddeley added: “We couldn’t do this without the generosity of our funders so our thanks go out to each of them for their vital support. We would advise any interested groups to apply sooner rather than later to secure their saplings!”

“The appetite to plant trees is clearly growing as demand for our free trees scheme has never been stronger, so we can’t wait to open applications again on 4 April, when we’ll have a further 700,000 trees available for planting in the autumn.”

The trees were sent far and wide:

• UK Total: 623,910 to 3865 organisations
• England: 506,415 trees to 3187 organisations
• Scotland: 76,665 trees to 475 organisations
• Wales: 40,830 trees to 206 organisations