Exciting tree news UK - New funding will enable planting of 21,000 trees at hospitals across England

5/30/2022 | Josef Jarý
NHS Forest
The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) has been awarded a £488,394 grant from the UK Government’s Trees Call to Action Fund. The funding will enable CSH to coordinate and expand the NHS Forest – a project that inspires and supports healthcare sites in transforming their green space for health, wellbeing and biodiversity.
Each year, the NHS Forest supplies healthcare sites with young trees and planting advice. The funding will support healthcare sites in planting 21,000 trees across England over the next three years and establish a new site-specific scheme offering bespoke ecological advice to 15 healthcare sites. It will also help the project to run its annual NHS Forest conference and Green Space for Health training days for NHS staff and volunteers.
NHS Forest
The NHS Forest provides a vibrant learning network for more than 270 UK healthcare sites that are looking to enhance their green space for the benefit of patients, staff and communities. The project is part of CSH’s Green Space for Health Programme, which helps to realise the value of green space for physical and mental health, both at healthcare sites and in the wider community.
The £6 million Trees Call to Action Fund supports projects which protect trees and woodlands, boost forestry skills and jobs, develop woodland creation partnerships, and engage communities with nature. The fund will distribute grants between £250,000-500,000 to be spent over three years, funding 12 projects across England. The fund was developed by Defra in partnership with the Forestry Commission and is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Carey Newson, CSH’s Green Space for Health Programme Director, said, “We are very excited to be awarded funding for the NHS Forest from the Trees Call to Action Fund. This will allow us to expand this flagship project further, reaching many more NHS sites and working in depth with our NHS partners to improve the biodiversity of their grounds. In the last tree planting season, our NHS Forest sites planted more than 15,000 trees across the UK, and we’re thrilled to be building on this success. Trees have a great many benefits: providing shade, storing carbon, creating wildlife habitat, improving air quality. At healthcare sites they also provide green views for patients that can help to support recovery, making NHS Forest trees especially beneficial.”
Other projects funded through the Trees Call to Action Fund include six new Woodland Creation Partnerships across rural and urban areas; two projects to develop the skills and workforce of the trees and forestry sector; and two projects which engage people, by engaging farmers to improve woodland condition, and restoring England’s hedgerows. All projects funded will support progress towards achieving the key objectives of the England Trees Action Plan – the Government’s long-term plan for England’s trees, woodlands and forests.

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) https://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk
 
Donate