Nottingham City Homes (NCH) has planted 100 trees across Nottingham as part of their plans to tackle climate change.
The ‘100 Years, 100 Trees’ project was started in 2019 by NCH as part of their celebrations of 100 years of council housing. The 100 trees are part of 130,000 that are being planted across the UK to tackle the climate crisis.
In consultation with residents, the 100 trees are chosen as a mix of edible and native varieties, including, apple, pear, damson, cherry, silver birch and hazel.
It all started when 10 trees were planted by NCH and Summerwood Community Garden at Woodthorpe Grange in Sherwood. The seven apple and three pear trees were grown by Summerwood at their Clifton plot. The other 90 trees have now been planted at different sites across the city, including Aspley, Basford, Bestwood, Bulwell, The Meadows, Clifton, St Ann’s and Lenton.
NCH bid for funding from environmental charity Trees for Cities, which has been given funding from the Forestry Commission to pay for the planting of 10,000 urban trees.
This scheme is just one of many aiming to support the government’s commitment to plant 1 million urban trees by 2022 and help lead the fight against climate change in towns and cities across England.
Nick Murphy, Chief Executive at Nottingham City Homes, said: “Planting these trees not only marks what was a really important year for us, but it is just one of the ways we as a company are trying to tackle climate change.
“We have worked with our residents on this project to make sure they had a big hand in choosing the trees and I would like to thank our residents and volunteers who helped us to plant these trees, we have planted them in places across Nottingham where we believe communities can appreciate them and watch them grow for years to come.”
Paul Sanders, NCH tenant and Street and Block Champion helped out at the planting at Winchester and Woodthorpe, he said: “It’s great to have these new trees here in Sherwood. We live in such a beautiful setting already, right on the edge of the park and it’s great that we can add these fruit trees to the area. It will be lovely to watch them grow over the years to come.”
Emma Jordan from Summerwood Community Garden, who have been helping to plant all the trees, said: “Planting fruit trees is hugely beneficial for promoting locally grown fruits with food security becoming more and more relevant as we tackle climate change together.”