14,246 acres of new woodland have been planted in England over the past year, a 27% increase over the year before.
The Forestry Commission notes that
Tree planting in England is now at its highest recorded rate in over 20 years.
The figures show that over the past year, 5,765 hectares of new woodland were established in England. [5,765 hectares equals 14,246 acres.] This means that woodland creation rates over the past year were 27% higher than in 2023/24, and 156% higher than in 2021/22 (when the Tree Planting Programme was in its infancy). In addition, 888,000 trees were planted outside woodland. This is the equivalent to 1,399 hectares, bringing the total area of tree canopy established and numbers of trees planted to 7,164 hectares, or 10.4 million trees. An equivalent to 10,000 football pitches.
This is a striking result, because England is densely-populated, with more than 1,120 people per square mile — about the same density as Oklahoma City.
The central Asian country of Uzbekistan is planting a forest of salt-resistant trees and plants in a desert to reduce salt storms.
Most of the world’s forests are growing. Reforestation over the past century has mitigated climate change in the southeastern United States.
In the U.S., forest has expanded over the past century due to more efficient agriculture, and the replacement of horses with automobiles. The automobile restored New England’s forests, which had mostly disappeared by 1910, but now cover much of the region. Today, Vermont is 78% forested, but in 1910, it was mostly un-forested.
The amount of vegetation on the Earth has increased every year for the past 30 years. .
“Giant redwoods – the world’s largest trees – are flourishing” in England, reports the BBC. There are now more of them in England than in California.
The trees, which were first brought to England about 160 years ago, “are growing at a similar rate to those found in their native range in California.”
California still has more redwood trees overall — found mostly in its coastal range — but fewer giant redwoods, which are located in the Sierra Nevada range of California.
Due to their youth, the English redwoods aren’t yet as tall as the California redwoods. In California the tallest reach 300 feet high, but in England, the tallest is only about 180 feet tall.
“Giant redwoods can live for more than 2,000 years, so there’s still plenty of time for the UK’s trees to catch up,” notes the BBC.
There are about half a million redwoods in England, Scotland, and Wales, including giant redwoods as well as coastal redwoods and dawn redwoods, both of which were introduced at later dates. Most of the English redwoods are giant redwoods.
“Giant redwoods were first brought to the UK by the Victorians. They were the ultimate botanical status symbol, typically planted in the grand estates of the wealthy. Today, some form sweeping avenues while others stand in ones or twos. But they’re easy to spot: their dense, cone-shaped crowns stand proud of everything around them,” notes the BBC.
English scientists recently sampled 5,000 trees to study in England and Scotland. “They used laser scanners to measure the heights and volumes of some of the trees…The researchers found that the trees were growing about as fast as the giant redwoods in their native home in the mountains of Sierra Nevada.”
The English climate suits them, says Dr. Wilkes.”Where they grow in California, it’s cooler and moister than you would typically envisage California to be. And we have a reasonably similar climate here – it’s very wet and they need the moisture to grow.”
