The Heart of England Forest is an exciting and ambitious charity. Our vision is to create and conserve a 30,000 acre Forest for the benefit of the environment, people and wildlife. To achieve this goal we will plant 13 million native broadleaf trees.
Planting tomorrow’s great native woodland has already started. The Forest covers a mosaic of habitats across 7,000 acres of land, including 4,685 acres of new woodland and 600 acres of beautiful, mature and ancient woodland. So far, we have planted 2 million trees.
At just 23% of the way towards our 30,000 acre goal, we are already the largest new native broadleaf woodland in England.
We establish and grow the Forest on land that we have purchased to ensure it is safe and protected for hundreds of years to come.
Tree planting on this scale makes a significant positive environmental impact, creating a huge carbon sink and helping to mitigate climate change. Further environmental and social impacts of planting include water purification and flood alleviation.
The Forest is more than just trees; it’s an incredible mosaic of habitats helping to boost diversity for plants, animals and people, and includes new tree planting, mature and ancient woodland, grassland, heathland, farmland and wetland.
We are passionate about connecting people to the countryside and all the benefits that brings to health, happiness and wellbeing. Our accessible trail enables people who might find woodland visits difficult to benefit from time spent in the Forest and expanded public access and new audio trails added in 2022 are encouraging more people to connect with nature.
Our amazing army of volunteers helps us with all aspects of creating and managing the Forest, including tree planting, wildlife surveying and assisting with our education programmes.
There are a variety of ways that you can volunteer with the Heart of England Forest:
Register for our fortnightly volunteering newsletter to keep up to date with upcoming activities and register to take part:
