Big Tree Plant gets bigger

The Mersey Forest is set to help over 70 community groups and schools plant trees this winter, as we enter the second year of the Big Tree Plant,  a national campaign encouraging people and communities to plant more trees in England's towns, cities and neighbourhoods.

Last year we worked with 68 groups including schools, hospitals and community centres to plant more than 17,600 trees across Merseyside and North Cheshire, surpassing our original targets by over 2,000 trees. This success enabled us to secure £160,000 in extra Big Tree Plant funding, which we'll be putting to good use for the next three years.

This tree planting season (November 2012 to March 2013), we'll be planting new community orchards in Cheshire, in partnership with Cheshire Landscape Trust. In Halton, we'll be expanding a new school woodland at Farnworth Primary School, and will be working with Knowsley MBC to plant over 130 parkland trees.

In Liverpool, we'll be improving the landscape at St Annes and Christian Fellowship Schools with environmental faith charity Faiths for Change, and in Sefton parents and nursery children at Litherland Moss Primary School and Children's Centre will be helping plant a new woodland.

In St.Helens, we'll be refurbishing a fruit growing area in the town centre at St.Helens Launchpad, and in Warrington, we'll be creating a new woodland at Thelwall Primary School, which will be used in the future to teach children outdoors.

If you're part of a school or community group who would like to help green your local community by planting trees, there's still time to let us know. Contact The Mersey Forest Team on 01925 816217.

Big Tree Plant complements the work of ForeStClim – an EU-funded environmental project that looks at forests and climate change across North West Europe. The majority of Big Tree Plant planting schemes focus on urban areas of high deprivation, which are lacking in green space and are therefore most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Community tree planting in The Mersey Forest this winter is also supported by The Woodland Trust.