National Forest for Wales grows to over 90,000 hectares
The National Forest for Wales now covers the equivalent of over 90,000 rugby pitches thanks to a network of woodland sites across Wales.
Recent additions include two new sites: Aberduna Hall in north-east Wales and Castle Wood in Carmarthenshire, adding 24 hectares between them.
Both sites will help support nature, tackle the climate emergency, and enable more people to spend time in green spaces.
Lucy Powell, from Outside Lives at Aberduna Hall said: “Guided by nature, we believe in building communities that look after themselves and each other. This means creating welcoming spaces where people can meet, talk, share ideas, and build trust.
“We have seen this happen at our HQ forest site; people naturally start connecting, working together, and supporting one another and helping rebuild the sense of community that’s been lost over time.”
The National Forest now also includes 23 Coetiroedd Bach (Tiny Forests) across Wales. These are small plots the size of tennis courts created using the Miyawaki method of dense native tree planting.
Other recent additions to the Nation Forest include another 20,000+ hectares of the Welsh Government Woodland Estate, like two areas managed by community groups at Crynant and Welcome to our Woods.
There are also two Covid-19 Commemorative Woodland sites, the first at Hafod y Bwch at the National Trust Cymru’s Erddig Estate in Wrexham and the second at Ynys Hywel near Caerphilly. These forests provide safe, accessible places for families and friends to remember loved ones lost during the pandemic.
The Deputy First Minister with responsibility for Climate Change, Huw Irranca-Davies said: “Ninety-thousand hectares is a huge milestone for the National Forest for Wales on our journey towards creating a forest that extends from north to south.
“The National Forest is about more than just trees – it’s about making sure more people can spend more time in nature and tackling the climate emergency.”
Sites joining the National Forest receive Welsh Larch signs produced by Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind, a social enterprise employing disabled and disadvantaged people throughout South Wales. The signs are made from Welsh Larch which is grown, felled and processed in Wales, and is FSC certified.
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All very well but why were so many mature trees cut down at Penllegaer including the giant redwood? Why cut down mature woodland when you are meanwhile accelerating reforestation of agricultural land?
3 trillion trees in the world. There is 2064100 hectares in wales. We can plant 1600 trees per hectare. We can plant 3,302,560,000 trees in the entire Wales land mass (including all city’s and towns roads, brecon beacons etc. This equates to 0.11 percent of the world’s trees. Swansea is 1846 hectares We can plant 2953600 trees in Swansea, if we knocked down all houses and concrete etc. It would take 5.62 years to replace Swansea with all trees, if you were planting 1 tree every minute, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That is 0.00009845333333333332 percent of… Read more »