A growing community of volunteers have planted over 4,000 trees at Great Avon Wood in the past month.

Local charities Avon Needs Trees and the Forest of Avon Trust have worked in partnership to secure over 100 acres of land near the village of Pensford. Great Avon Wood is the largest new woodland creation project on record for the West of England. Over the next three years, volunteers will help to plant and care for 40,000 trees supplied by the Woodland Trust.

Dave Wood, Director of Avon Needs Trees reflects on the project so far: “It has been amazing to welcome people to the site and to see the new woodland start to take shape. We are grateful to have so much interest from people from the local area and also from across the region. We are thrilled to have planted over 4,000 trees.”

Avon Needs Trees is partnering with charity Black2Nature to run family-friendly tree planting days. Founder Mya Rose Craig (AKA birdgirl) attended the first event and was delighted to be planting trees with her sister alongside other family groups. She said: “This is an incredibly exciting project and this sort of action on a local level is really important. It’s so nice for local communities to see that positive change is happening and that they can get involved with it themselves.”

Metro Mayor Dan Norris who joined the Great Avon Wood launch last month said: “What a start! My thanks to all the volunteer heroes out there who came forward to start planting our very own Winnie the Pooh-style 100 acre wood in the Chew Valley – made possible thanks to a £700,000 grant from my West of England Combined Authority. But we need to go further.”

Alex Stone, Director of the Forest of Avon Trust explains what makes this project so special: “The Forest of Avon community has its first new woodland base and over 100 acres of wonderful habitat which we hope will give thousands in the region the chance to enjoy it in years to come, whether through helping to plant, enjoying wellbeing activity, walks, talks or keeping up to date remotely.”

Great Avon Wood is a partnership between Avon Needs Trees and Forest of Avon Trust.

Defra has provided funding through their Trees for Climate programme and funding for the establishment of the Great Avon Wood has come from the Green Recovery Fund managed by the West of England Combined authority led by Metro Mayr Dan Norris.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has provided a grant to establish a heritage trail and to set up partnerships that will allow Avon Needs Trees to attract and engage under-represented groups. All 40,000 trees will be provided by the Woodland Trust.

The woodland has been designed to include species-rich grassland, areas of natural regeneration, agroforestry and a new orchard. As with Avon Needs Trees’ other schemes, Great Avon Wood will involve a commitment to long-term stewardship of the new trees, including an ongoing maintenance and care programme led by volunteers and overseen by the charity. Community involvement will be integral to the scheme’s success.