50,000 trees for Hampshire

More than 50,000 trees are to be planted at Crowthorne and Bramshill Forests in north Hampshire this winter as part of an extensive nature conservation project.

The planting, which is vital to sustainable forestry and in helping to combat climate change, is the first phase of a programme across the South East that will lead to over quarter of a million trees being planted during the next few months.

The first of these trees will be at Crowthorne Forest, where 10,000 Scots Pine are to replace those that have been harvested for the production of sustainable timber for fencing, pallets, cladding, gates, wood for fuel and construction.

An additional 40,000 trees are destined for Bramshill in the New Year, including sites where gravel was extracted when it operated as a quarry.

The area is part of the internationally important Thames Basin Special Protection Area, designated because three rare European birds breed there - Dartford warbler, woodlark and nightjar. The rotational system of cutting down trees and then planting new trees to replace them provides these birds with a valuable ground nesting habitat.