Lodders plants 400 trees for The Heart of England Forest

A team from Lodders volunteered to roll up their sleeves and plant 400 trees in Dorsington Wood in Stratford upon Avon last week as part of an initiative led by local charity The Heart of England Forest.

The Heart of England Forest is aiming to reverse centuries of woodland decline and create and conserve a 30,000-acre broadleaf forest for the benefit of the environment, wildlife and people and provide a place of enduring natural beauty, protected and secured for generations to come.

The Forest covers a mosaic of habitats across 7,000 acres of land in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, including 4,450 acres of new woodland and 600 acres of mature and ancient woodland. Over the last 20 years, The Heart of England Forest has planted two million trees.

Tree planting

The Lodders team (pictured) planted the saplings on Friday 17 March on one of the charity’s established land holdings situated just outside of Long Marston in Stratford upon Avon. Participating in the tree planting were Lodders’ partners Mike Wakeling and Jane Senior, as well as the firm’s Owen Rees, Gemma Bryant, Anjali Narshi, Laura Taylor, Oliva Beeton, Jenny Jones, Nicholas Jenkins, Annette Askew, Sara Dove, Will Elson, Sarah Curtlin, Nicole Harrison, Jacqui Brampton, Caroline Payne, Vicki Gulliver, James Stilgoe, Nicky White, Kerry Murphy and Amita Chauhan.

Owen Rees, head of Lodders’ Enviro Group, said: “The tree planting was a highly enjoyable event that gave us the ideal opportunity to give back to the community, help develop the local landscape and ecosystem, and support The Heart of England Forest make progress towards its 30,000acre forest goal.

“Getting involved in initiatives like this is key part of Lodders’ commitment to ensuring our business practices are as sustainable as possible and to reducing the firm’s carbon footprint, which we will be measured in our upcoming annual carbon assessment.

“We’d like to thank The Heart of England Forest charity for the incredible work it is doing to conserve our natural environment and combat climate change.”

The Heart of England Forest

Jonathan Saunders, volunteering manager at the charity, said: “Volunteering is enormously valuable to The Heart of England Forest. With over 4,000 acres of newly planted woodland and 600 acres of established forest to maintain and manage, along with a mission to plant 300 acres of new saplings each year, we simply couldn’t do this without the kind and generous support of our corporate volunteers.

“A team of 21 from Lodders Solicitors in Stratford upon Avon came out to the Forest for a morning last week to get their hands dirty by planting 400 new trees in the space of 2.5 hours – a phenomenal effort and a demonstration of their commitment to improving the local environment for all.”

For more information about The Heart of England Forest, click here.