The Mersey Forest and local veterans join forces to create more woodlands across Merseyside and Cheshire

The Green Task Force, which is made up of a team of veterans from across the North West, focuses on providing positive pathways through either recovery, training and employment.

Currently, a team of nine is helping to support the work of The Mersey Forest, the area's local Community Forest, who have been creating woodlands in and around the area's towns and cities for the last 30 years.
 
Recently, the taskforce supported The Mersey Forest and Dunham Massey National Trust (NT) to plant a 1,150 metre hedgerow, incorporating around 5,750 trees and shrubs on Stamford Farm on the NT estate.
 
The new woodlands and hedgerows will help to capture carbon and create thriving species rich green corridors, better connecting existing wildlife habitats.
 
The ethics and ethos of the Green Task Force, developed from their time in the military, means they are well suited to this type of work and are gaining new skills and valuable experience in the growing forestry sector, supporting their future job prospects.
 
The Mersey Forest understands how connecting people with nature can really benefit people's health and wellbeing and regularly organises activities, through Cheshire Natural Health Service, to use the area's green space to support people's health.
For the Green Task Force, working outside, alongside follow veterans, helps their wellbeing and provides a social setting where members are able to share their experiences, both good and bad, with others who understand their background.
 
Mark West, Operations Manager at Green Task Force, said: "This partnership is extremely exciting for our veteran community. With more than one in six serving and former service personnel who have seen combat suffering some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it is giving us the opportunity to both socialise and work together once again, in an environment we all feel familiar with. Working outdoors offers an additional sense of belonging and comfort to all, learning new skills to channel our focus and energy to complement our existing drive and strong work ethics along the way."
 
Paul Nolan, Director of The Mersey Forest, said: "Having the Green Taskforce work alongside us during this planting season has been invaluable. We are tasked with planting over a hundred hectares across Cheshire and Merseyside this year, and the team has worked alongside our woodland advisors to support us in this push to get the right trees in the right place across the area. We hope the valuable skills that they are learning on the job will help them to secure employment within the forestry or environmental sectors in the future."
 
The planting scheme at Stamford Farm is one of hundreds of sites across the area that are being planted as part of the national Trees for Climate programme, a multi-million-pound woodland creation project, part of the Government-led Nature for Climate Fund.

The Green Taskforce is part funded by The Green Recovery Challenge Fund, a project that will kick start a Green Recovery across Cheshire and Merseyside, boosting nature recovery and connecting people to nature. The project is supporting the establishment of the Operations Manager and Operations Coordinator for Green Task Force and the recruitment of 30 trainees, to bring veterans into the green economy.