News / Avon Needs Trees
£100,000 needed to create South West’s ‘biggest new woodland in a generation’
A charity with a plan to create the South West’s “biggest new woodland in a generation” is seeking urgent donations to make the dream a reality.
The boss of Avon Needs Trees says the ambition to plant some 100,000 native trees across 420 acres of land at Compton Dando in the Chew Valley represents a unique opportunity to turn around the critically low percentage of woodland cover in our region.
The charity, which was formed to tackle the climate and nature crises, says it has identified grants and loans to cover a portion of the cost to buy the land at Wick Farm and create the woodland, but it is still seeking a further £100,000 to enable the project to go ahead.
Avon Needs Trees is hoping to capture people’s imaginations with the plan to create what it will call Lower Chew Forest, and is launching a crowdfunding campaign and asking individuals, schools and businesses to get involved in a bid to raise the necessary funds.
Avon Needs Trees plans to create the South West’s “biggest new woodland in a generation” and is seeking urgent donations to make the dream a reality – photo: Alex Turner
Dave Wood, CEO of Avon Needs Trees, said: “When Wick Farm came onto the market, we knew we had to act. It’s rare for such a large amount of land to come up in one go, particularly somewhere like Compton Dando which is so close to Bristol and Bath, and we know that biodiversity recovery is far more effective across a large area.
“It really is the biggest opportunity in a generation for us to turn around the critically low percentage of woodland cover in our region, and create a forest-sized woodland.
“We have just 7.8 per cent woodland cover in the West of England, compared to 13.2 per cent average across the whole of the UK. The benefits of increasing this cover include helping to mitigate climate change, improving biodiversity connectivity and offering a place for people to volunteer, learn and connect with nature.”
When put together with adjoining woodland, the proposed new Lower Chew Forest would be bigger than Leigh Woods or the Downs.
Dave adds: “With these kinds of projects, donors sometimes say they’d really like to know where exactly their money will go.
“With the Lower Chew Forest, they’ll be able to know precisely where the trees they’ve helped fund will be. They will be able to come and see the trees and even help to plant them. So this will be a huge new woodland created for the people, by the people.”
“It really is the biggest opportunity in a generation for us to turn around the critically low percentage of woodland cover in our region, and create a forest-sized woodland,” says Dave Wood – photo: Alex Carl Turner
Find out more and donate via: www.avonneedstrees.org.uk.
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