Avon Needs Trees charity is well on its way to buying the 19 acres in Seend to create a new, permanent woodland. after receiving a very big boost – £25,000 from a Bristol-based individual.
“We’re absolutely thrilled,” says Nikki Jones, chair of Avon Needs Trees. “This takes us much closer to the £175,000 purchase price of the land. We still need to raise another £30,000, but we’re increasingly confident that we will get there.”
Avon Needs Trees registered as a charity in July 2019. It aims to buy land in the Bristol-Avon catchment area to create new, permanent woodland through planting and rewilding. Its objectives are to lock-up carbon, improve local biodiversity, provide natural flood management, and publicly accessible green space. The 19 acres at Seend will be turned into a mix of woodland, community orchard, meadow and ponds.
“We’re gaining fantastic experience at our 34-acre site at Ratford, near Calne,” says Nikki. “Despite Covid, almost 3,000 trees have gone into the ground this winter, and we have another 6,000 to go. Our volunteers have been fantastic. We look forward to replicating this at Seend – creating the ponds and meadow this summer, and planting 10,000 mixed native broadleafs next winter.”
