Council announces tree planting to reduce carbon footprint

Tree planting

Cheshire East Council has announced that more than 6,000 trees are planned to be planted across the borough during this planting season (ending March 2020) and is encouraging residents and businesses to do the same.

In May 2019, a notice of motion was backed by a unanimous vote at full council which called for a commitment to the target of Cheshire East Council being carbon neutral by 2025.

The tree-planting initiative will support this motion as each tree planted has the potential to capture around one tonne of carbon over its lifetime.

Councillor Nick Mannion, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for environment and regeneration, said: "I am delighted to be able to announce that we are planting so many trees across our borough. Trees play a vital role in our environment. Not only do they produce oxygen, they also help to absorb the carbon dioxide emissions we create each and every day. Planting trees is just one measure that we can all take, where possible, to reduce our carbon footprint.

"We are also asking our community groups, schools, residents and businesses to plant a responsibly sourced tree and nurture it for the future."

Councillor Quentin Abel, Cheshire East Council's climate change champion, said: "I'm really pleased with this initiative. I would like to congratulate our officers at Cheshire East for making it possible to plant the 6,000 trees this side of the growing season.

The care and attention to detail that has been put in place, should result in an approximately 80 per cent increase in growth rate - with all the advantages and benefits this provides to all our communities."

Tags:
Cheshire East Council
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Duncan Herald
Monday 2nd March 2020 at 9:53 am
Someone will decide on which species of trees will be planted.
May I suggest that the majority be 'native' species, rather than 'exotics'
Colin Ardron
Tuesday 3rd March 2020 at 5:00 pm
In years gone by Cheshire East had an initiative of giving away (free!) 6 tree saplings every year to anyone who had a bit of land on which to plant them. In the 80s I made use of this over a number of years and now those trees are over 30yrs old and just magnificent - silver birch, hazel, beech, alder, hornbeam - a wildlife dream! I used to collect them from the back of Macclesfield Cemetery - a nice touch - bringing back life. Is this not something that might be reincarnated as there are lots of people and/or groups who have big gardens or bits of land doing nothing - what better way to bring back life!
Duncan Herald
Wednesday 11th March 2020 at 10:19 am
May I refer readers to today's (11th March) Daily Telegraph page 12; planting a fast-growing, dense forest i.e. 600 native trees planted in a 200 sq. metre plot.
The Dutch have apparently been doing this, having planted 100 such.