The Forest of Avon is marking a huge milestone in 2025: more than 261,000 trees planted since 2020 through our Trees for Climate programme – transforming the West of England into a richer, greener, and more resilient landscape for both nature and people.

Over the past five years, our team has partnered with landowners on 228 sites from North Somerset to South Gloucestershire, and beyond. From new woodland creation and trees on farms to hedgerows, community orchards, and street trees in our towns and cities, every single tree planted is now part of the Forest of Avon. Each project brings benefits to the local area, creating healthier habitats, protection against flooding, and providing people with better access to nature.

“Across its lifetime, a single tree provides flowers, fruit, and vital habitat for countless forms of life, from invertebrates to fungi, birds and mammals. It enriches our landscapes, supports mental wellbeing, provides resources and adds to the beauty of the Avon’s scenery.

Thanks to the work and support of our communities, I’m very proud to say that Forest of Avon has achieved this ripple effect of planting and caring for a tree more than a quarter of a million times and counting.”

– Lewis Chisholm, Woodland Creation Manager

We’ve planted across 345 hectares – equal to 480+ football pitches of new woodland. That’s an area larger than Central Park in New York transformed into new woodlands, orchards, wood pasture and improved green spaces across the Forest of Avon.

Imagine a continuous hedgerow almost stretching from Bristol Temple Meads to Bath Spa. We’ve planted more than 17km of hedgerow over the last 5 years, creating wildlife corridors and bringing biodiversity to farms, field edges and woodlands. Hedgerows provide important habitats for birds, insects and mammals, food sources for pollinators, and play an essential role in soil protection and carbon capture.

The Forest of Avon has worked in partnership with Avon Needs Trees to support the creation of new permanent woodland sites, including Great Avon Wood near Pensford, and Lower Chew Forest near Compton Dando. So far, 40,000 trees have been planted across these sites, with thousands more to follow this winter.

And we’re just getting started. The Western Forest, England’s first new national forest in over 30 years, is an ambitious project hosted by the Forest of Avon and supported by funding from Defra. With a vision to plant 20 million trees by 2050 and restore and create woodlands across 4,000 hectares by 2030, the Western Forest is working to build a resilient future that will benefit the economy, nature and both rural and urban communities.

Our Trees for Climate programme is delivered through the Nature for Climate Fund, backed by Defra in partnership with England’s Community Forests. This is a nationwide effort, working alongside local people, landowners, and businesses to plant the next generation of woodland and help nature recover and thrive.

Since Trees for Climate began, England’s Community Forests have planted over 8 million trees across 6,200 hectares – that’s 35% of all government-funded tree planting since 2020. Watch the England’s Community Forests Year 5 Film

“Trees are such an important part of the ecosystem, I just think planting trees has to be one of the most worthwhile things you can do with your time on this planet. I would encourage anybody who’s thinking about planting trees to consider this scheme, there’s lots of good reasons to plant trees in terms of looking ahead to the future and how we become more climate resilient.”

– Brendan Tate Wistreich, Director of Bath City Farm, where we funded the planting of 227 fruit and nut trees in 2022 as part of our Trees for Climate scheme.