Plant trees at Penrose National Trust estate in Cornwall

The charity is hoping to find willing helpers to join the Penrose Rangers and volunteers at a series of winter woodland planting events, taking place on several dates during November and December 2024, and January 2025.

The National Trust plans to increase woodland cover at Penrose by ten per cent, enlarging the total woodland to more than 120 hectares.

This will involve planting broadleaf trees such as field maple and small-leaved lime to connect two large blocks of existing woodland.

Last winter, 400 volunteers helped plant 4,000 of the 8,000 trees, and now the Penrose Ranger team are asking for help to plant the remaining 4,000.

Second Helston Brownies helping plant trees in February (Image: Sam Goldsworthy) Similarly, at Gunwalloe, also managed by the Penrose Rangers, they plan to plant 3,000 hedging plants, including hawthorn and hazel, alongside a half kilometre stretch of new public footpath - expanding the area for nature and wildlife on the land.

Gregory Cross, lead ranger at Penrose, said: "Planting trees is for everyone’s benefit; not only does it enrich our lives to spend time immersed in nature, but trees improve biodiversity and create invaluable habitats for wildlife from varied ground flora and insects all the way up the food chain to birds and bats.

"Tree planting is also one of the simplest ways we can tackle climate change as it reduces existing atmospheric carbon that contributes towards this issue."

Hedgerow planting will take place at Gunwalloe (Image: National Trust Images/Trevor Ray Hart) He continued: "‘We have worked closely with Helston Climate Action Group to bring these plans to life. The goal of this project is for every tree to be planted by volunteers from the local community and we’re excited that local schools will be planting trees with us throughout winter, so we can involve and engage the next generation with their local woodland.

"We want people to feel connected to the places they love and to help us continue looking after this special place for future generations to enjoy, so we’re keen to have anybody local to Helston and Penrose to join us on our public tree planting events starting in November."

The scheme at Penrose will cost £60,000 to deliver and has been fully funded by the England Woodland Creation Offer provided by the Forestry Commission.

The National Trust have planted more than three million trees nationally so far, against a target of 20 million to plant by 2030.

Each tree could remove one tonne of carbon dioxide from the air over its lifetime. The carbon is not only stored by the tree and the roots but also held in the surrounding soil. As the trees grow, they absorb and lock in carbon emissions that would otherwise contribute to global heating.

Anyone who would like to help plant trees at Penrose needs to book a free place via the Penrose webpage nationaltrust.org.uk/penrose/events 

And for anyone who would like to help plant the hedgerow at Gunwalloe book a free place via nationaltrust.org.uk/Gunwalloe/events

Booking is essential for both planting projects.