Cumbria’s Coastal Community Forest has been given a £200,000 boost by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.
Thousands of trees will be planted along the western coast of Cumbria to create up to 150 hectares of new woodland – the equivalent of one tree planted for every resident in Copeland, Barrow and Allerdale over the next five years.
Defra has already committed £1.1 million to the project and planting is set to begin this winter.
NDA chief executive, David Peattie, said: “It’s our mission to clean up the UK’s earliest nuclear sites safely, and we have a legal and ethical responsibility to do that sustainably, with care for our communities and the environment.
“The Cumbria Coastal Community Forest will provide a lasting legacy that is beneficial to the people of Cumbria, its wildlife and the environment.
“We invest around £15 million each year in enabling permanent, positive, and significant social and economic change in our communities, investing in projects such as this which will benefit future generations for years to come.”
Currently, the community forest area has only 9.9 per cent woodland cover which is three per cent below the national average.
James Cobbold, forest director, said: “The support of the NDA is huge news for the Cumbria Coastal Community Forest, particularly at such an early stage of the programme.
“Through the creation of new woodlands in partnership with communities, the community forest provides a powerful way to build relationships with local people, organisations and businesses to create sustainable change for the coast of Cumbria.
“Having the NDA recognise the importance of the community forest is vital to its long-term success and we look forward to working with them.”
Trees help to provide clean air, improve soil quality and provide resilience to help reduce the effects of climate change, such as flooding and drought. There will be opportunities for nature recovery, carbon storage, enhancing biodiversity and environmental resilience.
The funding allows flexible options for woodland creation and tree planting, it will be a mix of community woodland, community orchards, field trees, private woodland, street trees, urban woodland, wooded habitat corridors and hedgerows.
Cumbria Woodlands is interested in hearing from landowners, community groups, and anyone with land that could be considered for woodland creation. The options for planting are flexible, can be done on a small scale and be complimentary to existing land use, be that farmland, community spaces, or within school grounds, it said.
