Northumberland has reached a major environmental milestone, with the planting of the one-millionth tree as part of the Great Northumberland Forest. The ceremony took place at East Cramlington Local Nature Reserve during National Tree Week, marking years of work to restore and expand woodland across the county.
00:00I'm here at East Cramlin in the local nature reserve where Northumberland County Council is marking a landmark moment, quite literally,
00:07by planting the one millionth tree grown as part of the great Northumberland forest.
00:12I've worked for this project for four years now, so I got involved at the beginning.
00:19So yeah, and this is just one site across the whole county. We've just planted our millionth tree this morning.
00:25We've had a little tree planting fund since 2022, so it's taken us three years to get to our millionth tree, so it's quite exciting today.
00:36Standing around two metres tall, the young oak tree is being planted during National Tree Week,
00:42symbolising years of work to restore and increase woodland across the county.
00:46Well, it's a great milestone, you know. It's only three years ago now when this project was thought about,
00:54and, you know, to manage to get to a millionth tree is a great feat, and the fact that, you know, the great Northumberland forest,
01:03initially people were thinking, oh, is that going to be one big area? No, it's loads of areas, loads of public access areas,
01:11places where people walk their dogs and enjoy themselves, great for biodiversity.
01:16You know, Britain is one of the countries that's lost a lot of diversity in the past, and we all have to do our bit to restore things.
01:26Climate change and the environment is high on the council's agenda. During COVID, we saw the benefit that people saw from going to their country parks, etc.,
01:39and connecting with nature. So they're all good reasons why we wanted to back this project.
01:45It's a small, small part in a very, very big jigsaw, isn't it? You know, we're a small country,
01:51but everybody has to play their part. And things like this demonstrate the connection and the, you know,
01:58it's brought in people like the Red Squirrel Group, local schools, volunteers, and it's connecting people with nature.
02:06And, you know, it all builds on the biodiversity and the patchwork in the county.
02:11Since the project began in 2019, the council has created 190 hectares of new tree coverage.
02:18That's the equivalent of around 27 trees for every child under the age of five in Northumberland.
02:23The programme includes 125 hectares of small woodlands and shelter belts,
02:29many of which replace areas badly damaged by severe storms, including Storm Arwen.
02:34And it's not just trees. More than 33 kilometres of new hedgerows have been planted, creating vital wildlife corridors.
02:41Meanwhile, trees on farms are helping provide shade and shelter for livestock, supporting the wider rural economy.
02:48Today's event brings together council leaders, volunteers, and members of the Great Northumberland Forest team,
02:54all celebrating a project they hope will continue to grow for years to come.
02:59Stay tuned with us, just two hours.
03:01We'll be returning to this time, please.
03:04Hi.
03:05Friends, this is a residential environment.
03:06We've happened to be here in the areas of the Great Northumberland Forest.
03:08You can see樹形 as a different location.
03:09We've been in the areas of the Great Northumberland Forest.
03:10So we've been struggling with the Great Northumberland Forest.
03:12We've got all of the popular communities.
03:13And it has been great to see.
03:14So we've got thedrink in the government as well.
03:15We've been very soon as a result.
03:18We need to see in the people of the places of our community.
03:19We've been working to see where we can actually build on our cross-dic
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