Plea to plant a tree for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee!

Organisations across Wiltshire and Hampshire urged to take advantage of a free tree planting scheme

Author: Henrietta CreaseyPublished 9th Jun 2021

We're being urged to plant trees across the Wiltshire and Hampshire to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and help tackle climate change.

You can now apply for packs of free saplings from the Woodland Trust.

The charity has already dispatched more than 20 thousand trees across both counties in the Spring has part of steps to improve local areas.

It's now teamed up with The Queen's Green Canopy to offer free trees to help mark Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Applications are on a first come, first served based and the trees will be dispatched in November during planting season.

The packs, are available in a range of themes; year-long colour, a wild harvest, or a haven for wildlife.

Another contains hardy species which tolerate exposed sites and dry areas or where water collects easily.

The packs contain a mix of UK sourced and grown native broadleaf species such as hazel, rowan, hawthorn, common oak, silver birch, wild cherry, elder, dogwood and holly.

The packs also come in a range of sizes;

  • 15 for urban areas,
  • 30 which will create a six-metre hedgerow or a tennis court-sized copse
  • 105 enough to cover an area as big as four tennis courts
  • or 420 to cover an area the size of a football pitch

Senior project lead for the Woodland Trust Vicki Baddeley said:

"We're always amazed by the appetite schools and communities have for tree planting. It is such a wonderful thing to do. It is a positive, life-affirming and life-changing action that people can take to mark momentous occasions like The Queen's Platinum Jubilee, to help tackle the climate and nature crises, or to make their local areas a bit greener. We find that once people have planted one tree, they usually want to do more."

"All the trees planted have a host of different benefits working hard to lock up carbon, improve soils and water, reduce the flow of flooding, provide shade and shelter, create havens for wildlife and a places to enjoy."

To order free trees people can visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk before August 25 and they'll be delivered in November 2021.