THE MP for Bath travelled over to the Chew Valley as they visited the Lower Chew Forest to meet with the charity Avon Needs Trees.

Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrats, Bath) made the visit to the 400-acre site on May 30, where Avon Needs Trees (ANT) plans to establish a woodland of 100,000 shurbs and trees.

Avon Needs Trees is a registered charity creating new, permanent woodland at a landscape scale throughout the Bristol-Avon River catchment to tackle the climate and nature emergencies.

The charity raises the capital to buy land in order to ensure that the woodlands they plant will stand for generations.

The UK has less tree cover than almost anywhere in Europe and so ANT’s contributions look to help with meeting the UK’s ambition to reach 16.5 percent tree and woodland cover by 2050.

Katie Macnamara, Avon Needs Trees Partnerships Lead, and Aran Shaunak, Business Development Manager, outlined the organisation’s plans for the site which include the creation of a mosaic of habitats including species-rich grasslands, wetlands and hedgerows.

Lower Chew Forest sits within a wider landscape recovery project which sees ANT working with seven other landowners across 780 hectares in the Chew Valley.

Ms Hobhouse heard about ANT’s commercial plans for Lower Chew Forest. These include nature based tourism in the form of wellbeing courses and even a development of mini-cabins, along with the sale of Biodiversity Net Gain credits.

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) are a development approach that seeks to support nature’s recovery by ensuring that all new developments leave the natural environment in a better state than it was before.

Developers purchase standardised BNG units which measure the impact of development projects on biodiversity, ensuring that there is a measurable increase in biodiversity after their project is completed - either onsite or offsite - by working with land managers like ANT who are working to create or enhance habitats.

Aran Shaunak, Head of Business Development at Avon Needs Trees said: “We were delighted to be able to show Wera around our latest site here at Lower Chew Forest, and to tell her about our ambitious woodland planting plans.

“It was also a great opportunity to show how the innovative Biodiversity Net Gain market is allowing us to invest in our landscape at a scale and ambition that was previously impossible. Placing an economic value on biodiversity helps make it possible for us to deliver a greener future for nature, climate and local communities.”

Wera Hobhouse MP said: “Tree planting is vital for offsetting carbon emissions and improving biodiversity restoration. We simply cannot tackle the climate or nature crises without ramping up our commitment to planting more trees.

“The government had a target to plant 30,000 hectares of new woodland annually by 2025, but the target has been missed in every one of the last five years.

“So it is fantastic to see that Avon Needs Trees is getting to the root of the problem to help meet these targets, and improve our green spaces, the air we breathe and the future of our planet.