21 March: Celebrating World Planting Day & UN International Day of Forests
To celebrate the World Planting Day and UN International Day of Forests which falls on the 21 March each year, we are very pleased to be able to share some of the amazing work that our project partners at the National Trust have been doing over the past few months at their Killerton Estate here in Devon, as part of the Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest project.
Creating Community Forests on National Trust's Killerton Estate
The Community Forest project at Killerton has engaged local schools, colleges, and community groups in planting trees. Over the course of the project, over 750 members of the public and local community groups have been involved with the planting, including:
The Royal College of GPs, Exeter College, The Duchy School, Exeter City Community Trust, Devon Carers, University of Exeter, Bradnich Scouts, Met Office, Cornerstone Academy – Broadclyst and Westclyst Schools, Exeter Age UK, HIVE (home school group) and Cranbrook Education Campus.
69,000 trees planted and counting
Since just November 2024, 69,000 trees have already been planted across the Killerton Estate. Amazingly, 7,000 of this total have been planted by members of the public, including 28 local community groups.
Tree planting makes a fun day out as well as doing something to help with climate change. Responding to the call has brought together volunteers spanning the generations. Young people from local primary schools as well as community groups including Age UK have been actively involved with tree planting, helping forge connections with each other, with trees and nature and with this special green place in our community.
Inspiring our local communities
Killerton’s Countryside Manager Tim Dafforn explains “We need to bring people with us; we need to inspire lots of different groups in our local communities.”
The target of 70,000 trees planted is almost there. Listen to Tim explain more about this project, partnerships with Age UK and local primary schools, and the bigger 1 million target for trees by 2030 in the National Trust SW’s video at the link below.
Our research projects work in close partnership with the National Trust, and we are very proud to work together on projects for people and nature.
Suzanne Robinson: Development and Calibration of a process-based forest growth model (3PG-SonWal)
To celebrate World Planting Day & UN International Day of Forests, we are delighted to share a presentation by Dr Suzanne Robinson of Forest Research when she spoke about the work she is doing on the ADD-TREES project at our workshop in Falmouth in September. Click here to view the presentation.
