Tree planting season launched – 3,000 target for St Albans District this year
Councillor Chris White has launched the tree planting season in St Albans District – with 3,000 new trees to be introduced this year.
Cllr White, Leader of St Albans City and District Council, planted a double white flowering cherry tree in Bernards Heath.
The mature, standard tree was funded by the Queen’s Green Canopy, an initiative set up to mark Her Majesty’s 2022 Platinum Jubilee.
He was helped with the task by workers from the Council’s main grounds contractor, John O’Conner.
Trees are generally planted during the winter and early spring when conditions are best suited to ensuring they become established.
Cllr White said:
I am pleased to have planted a beautiful cherry tree which will add to the attraction of Bernards Heath and improve the local environment.
As a Council, we have declared a climate emergency and are committed to making the District carbon neutral by 2030.
Accelerating our tree planting programme forms part of that ambition and I am delighted we will be planting 3,000 new trees this winter alone.
Given the demands on our own budget, we have been energetic in our attempts to gain the necessary funding from external sources to allow us to reach our targets and will continue to do so in the years ahead.
I know our residents are fully behind these efforts to green the District and plant many more thousands of trees.
This season, the Council will plant 57 standard trees which are usually around two to three metres high and monitor them to see they take root.
Eight of these trees will be planted at a communal space beside social housing and 12 are replacements for trees around the District that had reached the end of their life.
Some 3,000 smaller trees, known as whips, are also being planted at various locations around the District.
All the planting will take place this year on Council-owned land with some of the funding coming from a successful bid to the Local Authority Treescapes Fund.
Picture: Cllr Chris White (left) with Alan Wadsworth, Senior Contract Manager with John O’Conner, launching the District tree planting programme.
Councillor contact: Councillor Chris White, Leader and Chair of the Policy Committee: cllr.c.white@stalbans.gov.uk; 01727 845300.
Contact for the media: John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer: 01727 296130; john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.