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Get ready to branch out and celebrate the wonder of trees! 

From November 25th to December 3rd, National Tree Week takes place across the country to mark the start of UK winter tree planting season. Celebrating National Tree Week’s 50th anniversary of its ‘Plant a Tree in ‘73’ campaign, this year sees ‘Grow a Tree in ‘23’ take its place. Celebrating the theme of growing trees, we want to share with you the driving forces behind nurturing our woodlands and how our long-term approach encapsulates National Tree Week’s ‘Grow a Tree in ‘23’ theme.

Trees are at the heart of our mission at the Forest of Marston Vale Trust. We've already planted over 2 million trees to create thriving community woodlands. Many elements are considered when planting a single tree, from planting the right mix of tree species, deciding where best to plant, and choosing the best time to start the planting journey. However, planting the right tree at the right time is only the beginning of the story.  Once the trees are in the ground, our focus homes in on nurturing and managing the new woodland to deliver the greatest biodiversity and keep it flourishing for generations to come.

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The Journey to Transform Land into Woodlands – with you in mind! 

In the early 90s the Marston Vale was designated as one of England’s Community Forests, along with 11 other regions that had been scarred by industry, with the aim of planting trees to improve the prospects of the area. Now nearly 30 years on, we have 12 thriving woodlands in 61 square miles between Milton Keynes and Bedford. As a Community Forest, we bring trees and people together, inviting you and your family and friends to our woodlands to venture into nature and enjoy the brilliance of trees. We also encourage you and your community to get involved in transforming and caring for your local landscape, holding many volunteer activity days such as woodland management tasks and tree planting days. These opportunities can inspire you to connect with nature, all while empowering you to play an important role in the health and future of the Forest. To date we have succeeded in expanding tree cover in our area from a mere 3.6% in 1995 to over 15% today, giving beautiful woodlands back to your community. Through working closely with local schools, corporate groups, private landowners, and you, we continue to plant and grow even more trees to reach our unified goal of increasing England’s overall tree coverage.

 

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How are we ‘growing a tree in ‘23’?

In November 2020, we came together with the rest of England's Community Forests to launch the Trees for Climate programme. This multimillion-pound woodland creation initiative, made possible through funding from the Government’s Nature for Climate Fund, aims to increase biodiversity and mitigate the impact of climate change. Trees for Climate doesn’t just see trees going into the ground, it’s an opportunity to share our knowledge and give long-term support to those looking to transform their land, caring for the future of the trees planted. After just three years of collaborative planting, over 500,000 more people now live within 500m of a woodland across the country and an impressive 81% of the Trees for Climate woods are easily accessible to the surrounding communities, fostering a stronger sense of community and connection with nature. For the Forest of Marston Vale Trust, our ambitious Forest Creation team has gone above and beyond expectations. In the winter of 2022/2023, we created an astonishing 120 hectares (296 acres) of new woodlands. To put this into perspective, this incredible achievement is equivalent to an area three and a half times larger than had ever been planted in a single season before. 

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To further enhance the future of our trees, we rely on our dedicated ranger team that work across our woodlands. The ranger team put in countless hours to maintain and care for the trees, ensuring they remain healthy, diverse, and accessible for all to enjoy, making it easier for everyone to immerse themselves in the wonder of trees. Thinning is one method used by the rangers and holds a lot of benefits for the growth of a woodland. This method involves removing selected trees and has been a technique used in forest management for centuries. Initially we plant our trees quite densely, which encourages competition and helps them in their initial growth phase. As our woodlands mature the ranger team will choose specific trees to fell. This thinning process gives the remaining trees space to grown and allows ground fauna to flourish, create a healthy woodland, with the optimum biodiversity. 

Tree guards are an essential part of a woodland’s growth, protecting the young trees from nibbling wildlife and the unpredictable weather. Although tree guards are designed to eventually fall off, this isn’t always the case. So, it’s important for us to remove the tree guards that haven’t yet fallen off. Our ranger team, along with amazing volunteers, are at the forefront of collecting tree guards from our community woodland. With our growing group of volunteers, we host Tree Guard Removal Days which encourages you out to our woodlands to help the ranger team in making our more established woodlands tree guard free. The removal of tree guards ultimately helps to prevent strangling or deforming of the trees and contributes to the overall growth success of the woodlands. 

 

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Celebrate with us.

For this National Tree week, join us in celebrating the incredible trees that have been planted, nurtured, and maintained within the Forest of Marston Vale! As a Community Forest, these trees are not just for us; they are for you too, and together we can make a difference, one tree at a time. Head on out and explore our woodlands to immerse yourself in the natural world for this year’s National Tree Week. Or, why not take part in hosting a tree party? Find out more HERE.

Don’t forget to tag us (@forestofmarstonvale) in your woodland adventures!

#TreeParty #NationalTreeWeek #ForestofMarstonVale

Want to do more for your local woodland and be part of something amazing?

Explore our volunteer opportunities!