Ahead of National Tree Week (23 Nov – 1 Dec) the Mayor of London is urging Londoners to get involved in tree planting and take part in some of the 30 events happening across the capital.
City Hall is working with Trees for Cities and TCV, the community volunteering charity, who will host several planting days where hundreds of volunteers will plant thousands of trees. This will contribute towards increasing London’s tree canopy by 10 per cent by 2050 and maintain London’s status as the world’s first National Park City. Trees help to tackle climate change and protect wildlife habitats by producing oxygen, absorbing carbon, countering flooding, creating shade and improving air quality.
Some 40,000 trees have been funded by City Hall through Community Tree Planting Grants for planting this winter. A further 60,000 will be planted by Londoners throughout National Tree Week, including:
- 15,000 Londoners will be planting in their gardens after winning 30,000 free trees in a ballot, in partnership with The Woodland Trust and supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Almost 18,000 Londoners applied.
- Community groups and schools across London will be planting 25,000 trees. More than 200 groups have received packs of between 10 and 200 trees, distributed by TCV, to help create new hedgerows and see more trees planted in parks and green spaces on housing estates.
- It’s not too late to get involved – Londoners can pick up trees from 10 locations across the capital during the week. An extra 5,000 trees will be available to collect through TCV.
City Hall is also supporting the Orchard Project, a national charity dedicated to the creation, restoration and celebration of community orchards, as well as providing free fruit trees and advice, for up to 20 community groups who want to start their own orchards.
Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues, said: “It’s fantastic to see so many Londoners, community groups, charities, schools and others coming together to plant thousands of trees – part of the 100,000 that will be planted this winter with City Hall support. We’re urging thousands of Londoners to roll up their sleeves and get involved in a local planting event to not only make their communities a more beautiful place, but improve health and wellbeing for all.”
Notes to editors
- Activities include three large-scale tree planting events funded through the GLA’s Community Tree Planting Grants:
23 November
Goodmayes Planting Day, 10am - 3pm
Goodmayes Park, Redbridge, IG3
Trees for Cities are planting up to 9,000 trees with Redbridge Council and Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure.
TCV (The Conservation Volunteers) 60th Anniversary Tree Planting, 11am - 2pm
Westcroft Close, Camden, NW2
The Community Volunteering charity's anniversary celebrations will include planting 3,500 trees and family activities.
30 November
Beckton Planting Day, 10am - 3pm
Beckton District Park South, E16
Trees for Cities are working with Newham Council to plant up to 9,000 trees.
- An extra 5,000 trees will be available to collect during National Tree Week at:
- Bloomberg Arcade, City of London - 27 and 28 November
- Stave Hill Ecological Park, Southwark - 30 and 31 November
- Lavender Pond, Southwark - 30 November
- Dulwich Upper Wood, Southwark - 30 November
- Lloyd Park, Waltham Forest - 1 December
- Railway Fields, Haringey - 1 December
- Greenwich Ecology Park - 1 December
- Osterley Park, Hounslow - 27 November
- At TCV’s tree planting event at Westcroft Close, Camden - 23 November
- At Trees for Cities planting event at Beckton Park, Newham - 30 November
- 175,000 trees have been already been planted through City Hall programmes since May 2016. The new trees being planted this winter bring the total to 275,000.
- Tree planting season runs from mid-November to mid-March.
- More advice on how to get involved and plant trees is at www.london.gov.uk/trees