Empowering communities to plant trees in Burford

It’s tree planting season in the UK, which means we get to share exciting, community led, tree planting projects.

In Burford, West Oxfordshire, our partner, Nature and Nurture is inspiring and mobilising local community groups to protect, enhance and restore their local landscape.

“We are in a climate crisis and also a biodiversity crisis”, says Lucy, founder of Nature and Nurture. “This part of West Oxfordshire, is particularly depleted of trees and hedgerows and so, I wanted to do everything I could to try and restore the landscape and connect up the landscape for nature”.

In Lucy’s own words, “In 2019, I started something called the Burford Tree Initiative, which is a tree planting project to try and plant 2,020 trees by the end of 2020. So, we did that, successfully. In spite of COVID, we managed it.”

In partnership with ITF, an additional 5000 native trees and hedging will be planted at The Blue Cross Animal Rehoming Centre in Burford.

“It’s a huge site with lots of opportunities for planting hedgerows and small copses, says Lucy. “So, we thought that this year, we would try to get funding to come back here and plant a further 5000 trees.”

So far, the project has made great progress. “It’s been fantastic, we started planting in November and we’re planting 5000 trees, 3,500 hedging trees and 1,500 standard trees,” says Lucy.

At ITF, we understand the crucial importance of putting people and communities at the centre of landscape restoration and conservation initiatives. Despite the chilly winter weather, community groups from different walks of life are coming together to plant trees.

“It’s been a lovely experience, we’ve had all sorts of community groups coming out to plant,” says Lucy. “We’ve had local groups from Burford, primary school children, lots of individual groups, families. We’ve had the Muslim Women’s Association who came out to plant, they’ve been out three times and they’ve come from Aylesbury, Swindon, Oxford, all over, that’s been really lovely.”

Thanks to your support, Nature and Nurture, will continue to bring people together for a great cause, protecting and restoring local landscapes.

“We’re very grateful for all the funding and the support that the International Tree Foundation have given us,” says Lucy. “It’s been really fantastic to be able to do this and get people involved and to get people talking about trees and restoring the landscape.”

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