Sheffield will receive £180,000 to plant and protect trees as part of The Woodland Trust’s ‘Emergency Tree Fund’.
Sheffield City Council will receive just over 6% of the £2.9 million fund that aims to help cash-strapped local authorities create more green spaces.
Andy Bond, Senior PR officer at the Woodland Trust, said: “It will give local communities the green spaces on their doorsteps that are desperately needed, and which have shown to be so important for people during the current pandemic.”
After several years of controversial tree felling, the council’s decision to support the fund provides more evidence of environmentally conscious decision-making.
John Tucker, the Woodland Trust’s director of woodland outreach, said: “The Fund has the power to inspire tree planting and woodland creation and galvanise the need to treasure trees and green spaces in neighbourhoods across the UK.”
“What the country’s fight against Covid has shown is how communities have come together in a time of crisis.
“As the pandemic hopefully abates, getting outside and planting, maintaining and enjoying trees will be a way for this spirit to be harnessed once again in a different but very important way – to tackle the climate and nature crises which also affect us all.”
Sheffield is one of 11 councils benefitting from the fund and the Woodland Trust aims to expand the scheme further in 2022.
This is a key part of the charity’s recently-announced ambitious aim to establish 50 million more trees across the UK by 2025. The Woodland Trust says this will help tackle both the nature and climate crises.
In June 2019, the UK parliament made a commitment to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and it’s movements like the Emergency Tree Fund that will contribute significantly to achieving that.