More than 120 residents have so far received free trees as part of a one-off giveaway offer by the Isle of Wight Council.
The scheme, run in partnership with Gift to Nature, proved hugely popular with all 500 saplings claimed within hours of its launch last month.
Species such as crab apple, wild cherry, rowan, hazel and birch were available.
10-year-old Elliott was excited to receive a dogwood which he planted this week with his grandad, Barry:
“I love planting trees to help the environment.
“Trees are important as they help provide cleaner air and improve the environment.”
There are a small number of trees left over and the council will offer these to applicants who are on the waiting list on the same first come, first served basis as before.
Planting trees in the right place helps to improve nature, tackle air pollution and reduces the amount of carbon in our atmosphere, as well as having positive impacts on physical and mental wellbeing.
The council’s parks and recreation team has planted some 430 trees during the past 2 winters, including:
- 224 standard trees across council parks and open spaces
- 90 whips and willow trees at Seaclose Park and Seaclose Arboretum
- 40 whips in Appley Park
- 30 tree whips at Lake recreation field
- 30 whips in Shanklin Cemetery
- 9 fruit trees at Park Road Recreation Ground orchard, Cowes
- 5 Scots pines at Ryde Canoe Lake
Meanwhile, across the Gift to Nature sites, with partners, around 300 trees have been planted by Natural Enterprise in the past 12 months.
The council is also doing its bit to support tree planting on a global scale. Through its contract with mobile phone provider, Nokia, some 1,750 trees will be planted as part of the company’s ‘Let’s Plant Together’ scheme.
Councillor Jonathan Bacon, Cabinet member for environment, said:
“We are thrilled that the free giveaway enabled and inspired so many of our residents to contribute to our fight against climate change through tree planting.
“Engaging with residents is an important part of our Mission Zero Climate and Environment Strategy, which outlines priorities and objectives towards becoming carbon neutral.
“One of the big reasons climate change is happening is because people are letting too much carbon get into the atmosphere. Trees can take this carbon out of the air, which can help slow down climate change.”
Maybe if the council didn’t approve planning for more concrete jungles, this kind of thing wouldn’t be needed. Still, give it a few years and these will be cut down for more so called affordable housing.
Pathetic effort. These trees cost very little but all concerned look very pleased with themselves for making a token effort, which will have next to no impact. The council should be planting thousands and thousands of trees as a matter of course every year and not wasting time collaborating with these inept organizations just for PR. I don’t want to read about these clowns making a pathetic effort to tick a box. Climate change is real and a small amount of trees like this won’t save the planet. Sadly, the world has no hope if we don’t take this problem seriously. The council should just employ someone to produce trees (which is a very simple task) and get planting many thousands every year.
Tokenistic and poor. Trees grow don’t you know. Someone planting a tree in the wrong place will cause issues later on. Most of these will not survive either
What is the NET tree population figure then Mr. Bacon? That is the important statistic.
Apparently globally the annual figure is MINUS 10 billion (15 billion are felled and 5 billion are planted. Go figure.
Hope the council aren’t goint to put our council tax up to pay for them.