National Park plants 100,000 trees and aims for a million more
The South Downs National Park raised more than £400,000 from the public for the Trees for the Downs campaign
A national park has beaten its target of planting 100,000 trees by the middle of the decade and now plans to plant a million more.
The South Downs National Park raised more than £400,000 from the public for the Trees for the Downs campaign which has included planting 3,500 disease-resistant elms which provide habitats for threatened species including the white letter hairstreak butterfly.
More than 40,000 trees are being planted this winter as part of the scheme which will bring the total to 117,700 across 150 sites in Sussex and Hampshire.
A spokesman for the national park authority said: "The tree-planting is a mixture of woodland, civic and community planting, hedging and orchards - all providing a range of oxygenating, carbon-storing trees to provide homes for birds, mammals and insects.
"But the campaign, led by the South Downs Trust, the official charity of the National Park, is just getting started.
"A target has been set to plant 1 million more trees between now and 2035, focusing on identifying suitable sites for tree planting, including new woodland and hedges."
The spokesman added that there was "huge potential" to plant trees in the national park with 23,000 hectares identified as suitable sites.
He said this new woodland would be twice the size of Manchester and could store up to 37,667,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide after 100 years.
Forester and ecologist Nick Heasman, of the South Downs National Park Authority, said: "When we launched Trees for the Downs six years ago, we were never quite sure how big it would become.
"The reaction has been nothing short of extraordinary and I think it underlines people's affection for trees. In a tough and uncertain world, trees really are a symbol of hope and restoration and that's exactly the impact they are having in the South Downs National Park."
He added: "Planting a variety of native species, in the right place, continues to be our focus and will be crucial to tackling biodiversity loss and a changing climate.
"It's a real mixture of treescape we're creating, including many new hedgerows which are real powerhouses for nature recovery.
"Tree-planting is a key part of the national park's ReNature campaign to create much-needed and diverse wildlife habitats across this region, including woodlands, wetlands, grasslands and wildflower meadows."