Ribble Rivers Trust 10 year campaign to double Lancashire woodlands

Ambitious £5 million project will plant more than half a million trees to reduce flooding, improve air quality and remove 100,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere

Ribble Rivers Trust has launched a decade-long campaign to double the area of woodland across Lancashire to fight climate change, improve air quality and reduce flooding.

Working with private and public sector supporters together with community-based groups and conservation charities, the Rivers Trust is aiming to create 100 kilometres of new or restored woodland alongside the Rivers Ribble, Lune and Wyre together with their network of tributaries.

The Trust’s ambitious 10-year Lancashire Woodland Connect project will create an expanding network of connected woodlands for the benefit of communities across the entire county.

Lancastrians of all ages will have the opportunity to get involved in the campaign – either by donating via the Ribble Rivers Trust website (https://ribbletrust.org.uk/) or by participating in hundreds of grass roots tree planting and habitat creation projects across the county.

Lancashire is one of the least wooded areas in the UK and a huge programme of tree-planting is critical if the county is to meet its obligations to reduce greenhouse gases and slow climate change.

According to the National Forest Inventory, less than six per cent of Lancashire has tree cover – less than half the national average and one of the lowest of any counties in the UK. Increasing the proportion of woodland cover has been shown to contribute to reduced flood risk and soil loss and keeps rivers cooler and more oxygen-rich to benefit fish and wildlife.

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) calculates that the UK as a whole needs to plant at least 100 square miles of new woodland EVERY YEAR. According to Forest Research, last year, the UK struggled to plant half this number of trees, with the overwhelming majority of those planted in Scotland.

In order to meet CCC greenhouse gas reduction targets over the next decade, we need to plant at least 50,000 trees throughout Lancashire EVERY YEAR.

The Lancashire Woodland Connect project will bring a host of direct benefits for the entire county in terms of:

• Flood Relief
• Improved air quality
• Enhanced water quality
• A county-wide network of ‘Wildlife Corridors’
• Improved recreational access for health and wellbeing
• Job Creation
• Outdoor Education

The initiative aims to raise £500,000 per year of funding from public and private sector partners, grants, and the general public in order to raise £5 million. Progress has already been made towards this year’s target and this exciting initiative will continue to engage thousands of sponsors, volunteers, schools and community groups.

Coordinated and managed by the Ribble Rivers Trust, by 2030 the new waterside woodlands will extend across some 350 hectares of Lancashire – stretching from the Yorkshire Border to the coast beyond Preston.

The project will:

• Plant more than half a million trees over the next decade
• Create a minimum of 50 full and part time jobs
• Involve more than 3,500 volunteers across the county
• Extract more than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
• Add in excess of £100 million of value to Lancashire’s Natural Asset Base

And the wider benefits will extend across Lancashire in terms of cleaner air, better water quality, recreational opportunities, education, upskilling and job creation.

Whalley Village Hall Committee is one of the first community groups to commit to funding the initiative with a £10,000 donation.

Whalley was hit by catastrophic flooding at Christmas 2015 and the village hall provided refuge for the families affected and was a focal point for the clear-up operation.

As well as committing this generous sum to the Trust’s county-wide woodland initiative, members of the local community are looking forward to getting involved in hands-on tree planting at various locations around the village.

Village Hall Committee chairman Mike Seery said: “We have been looking to invest our surplus in projects that benefit the entire village and planting trees to improve air quality and strengthen natural flood resilience seems like an excellent investment from which the whole community will benefit.

“£10,000 may seem like a lot of money for a small, community-based charity, but the committee was unanimous its support for the scheme. We see this as a long-term investment that will pay dividends for the people of Whalley for at least the next 100 years.”

Ribble Rivers Trust Director Jack Spees said:

“There is huge appetite from communities across the Ribble catchment to do their bit to tackle climate change, increase biodiversity and contribute to natural flood risk management.

By working together, we can achieve so much more than alone and Whalley village hall’s generous donation demonstrates the kind of leadership and vision that we hope others will replicate.”

“Ribble Rivers Trust, the Environment Agency and Lancashire County Council have undertaken a study to identify which communities’ health will benefit the most from community-led action to improve the environment – including woodland creation.”

“It’s clear that there are significant benefits to be achieved by expanding woodland cover and that this should be a priority for all, but it is equally clear that the scale of this project is beyond the capacity of a single organization and that a partnership is required to take this forward.

“Ribble Rivers Trust has planted more than 150,000 trees across Lancashire over the last five years through the delivery of multiple woodland creation projects. The Trust believes it has the skills, knowledge and experience to lead a concerted effort to achieve significant woodland creation at a catchment scale.”

David Welsby, Chief Executive, Hyndburn Borough Council said:

“Hyndburn is one of more than 250 councils nationwide to declare a climate emergency and we are talking to a range of partners on how best to take action. Planting tens of thousands of trees across the borough is one of many initiatives we need to take on the path to carbon neutrality.

“Doing nothing is not an option and there is a strong consensus emerging across all sectors that a big step up in effective environmental actions is urgently needed. This will also act as a catalyst for increasing investment and many social benefits like improved health, natural spaces to enhance local neighbourhoods and for people to enjoy. 

“We are keen to work with Ribble Rivers Trust and other partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors both locally and throughout Lancashire. And this will help Hyndburn to meet carbon reduction targets, increase natural flood management and extend recreational, training and employment opportunities across the community.”

Miranda Barker, Chief Executive of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said:

“This ambitious, long-term strategy is a huge step towards achieving the county’s carbon reduction and climate change goals upon which both the public and private sectors are increasingly focused.

“Uniting businesses, communities, charities and individuals to plant hundreds of thousands of trees across the county will support inward investment and the wider transition to clean economic growth.”

“This exciting scheme will expand access to recreation in green spaces, create jobs in the rapidly expanding green economy and provide investment and training opportunities across the county.

Keith Ashcroft, Environment Agency Area Director for Cumbria and Lancashire

“Half a million new trees across these catchments will have an enormous impact on the quality, the health of the landscape – and how people interact with it. This ambitious scheme will improve the county’s natural ability to slow water through the catchments, which in turn will reduce soil erosion, improve water quality and improve the resilience to climate change.”

“Not only will it remove thousands of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere and improve local air quality, it will also provide greater opportunities for recreational access and make a significant contribution to improving local wildlife and importantly, people’s health and well-being.”