Britons across the UK are being encouraged to plant trees during planting tree season (October 2021 - to to the end of 2022) in an initiative to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
Schools, businesses, local community groups, councils and charities can apply for free saplings from the Woodland Trust as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy scheme.
Some of the aims of the initiative include: encouraging young people to learn how to plant trees, creating employment opportunities for young people and using donations from the scheme to help urban areas and schools with high levels of poverty and deprivation.
Planting a tree, is a great activity to do with your children and also provides an opportunity to teach them about climate change.
Planting trees across the world is an impactful and cost effective way of tackling CO2 and increased emissions caused by human activity. Trees can store carbon dioxide in their fibers helping to clean the air we breathe and reduce the negative effects of air pollution.
As trees grow, they absorb and store carbon dioxide emissions, help cool the earth down by cooling the ground around them and release oxygen into the atmosphere.
Planting trees is an opportunity to encourage children to make a positive contribution to wildlife and the environment.
The garden and outdoor green spaces are fascinating places for children and young people. Encouraging an interest in the environment through observation of changing seasons, wildlife, plant life cycles and sowing of seeds is a fun and educational activity with wide reaching benefits.
Start planning your tree planting this summer!
Three amazing books to spark your child’s interest below:
How Plants Grow by Hannah Watson and Anna Suessbauer
The Extraordinary Gardener by Sam Boughton
The Invisible by Tom Percival