Local children support community as winter tree planting gets underway

Children at Woodlands Academy took part in an educational assembly about the importance of trees before joining a team of volunteers and helpers from NELC, Flourish, LHP, Oasis Hub South and Nunny’s Little Farmer’s Nursery to plant the young trees.

They planted 24 trees in total – some at Nunny’s Farm, on the corner of Sutcliffe and Winchester Avenue, in front of the Sutcliffe Avenue shops and at Nunsthorpe Rec.

Greening Up Our Place is a community tree planting programme that is part of the Council’s Tree Strategy. The strategy sets out NELC’s approach for managing and protecting the existing tree population, increasing the number of trees in North East Lincolnshire, and for promoting the significant benefits that trees have in society.

It aims to give the residents of North East Lincolnshire a high quality, sustainable environment, which ties in with the Council’s Natural Assets Plan.

The Tree Strategy is supported by two successful funding bids to the Forestry Commission’s Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF) and Urban Tree Challenge Fund (UTCF), which will continue to be used to support  the Council’s tree planting efforts in 2025/26 to improve canopy coverage across North East Lincolnshire. Some boroughs, including East Marsh, West Marsh, Sidney Sussex, Immingham, and Croft Baker have as little as 2% tree coverage.

Cllr Henry Hudson, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Net Zero, said: “A big thankyou to everyone who took part in the recent tree planting. We have many more events like this planned over the coming weeks to increase the Borough’s tree coverage and it is wonderful to see these young children getting involved in such an important project.

”There are so many benefits that trees offer us, not least of which is the effect they have on our efforts to get to net zero by capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere.

“I look forward to seeing many more trees being planted this season and the Council will continue to work with partners, local businesses and community groups to increase tree canopy cover across North East Lincolnshire.”

To find out more about Greening Up Our Place visit https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/keeping-our-area-clean-and-safe/tree-planting/