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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