Help grow a green M25 of trees around London.

London’s Countryside charity – CPRE London – is creating a tree ring for London, delivering a continuous circle of woodland around the capital – and making an animal super highway. 

This exciting project will help ensure that London’s green belt plays a more powerful role in carbon capture and strengthening biodiversity, along with improving the wellbeing of Londoners. The continuous ring of trees will bridge green belt gaps in outer London and create corridors for wildlife.

Currently, large swathes of London’s green belt are under threat. Hounslow, Enfield and Ealing boroughs have all recently suggested substantial areas should lose their Green belt designation. In Hounslow, the council has proposed removing protective designations from 45 per cent of the borough’s green belt and to develop 41 per cent of that land. 

The tree ring will help the green belt to do its job of preventing urban sprawl. Without it London could spread like LA and if that happened the city would cover an area from Cambridge to Brighton.

Locals living in communities in the green belt or nearby, can help by letting CPRE London know which areas already have woodland and where planting is needed.

CPRE London’s Director, Anna Taylor says: “There is an urgent need for more tree planting – but this needs to be well-planned with plentiful community input in order to maximise the potential benefits of new woodlands and guard against the loss of other priority habitats or prime agricultural land.  

“We need to be creative in thinking about what London’s community forest should look like. We need to ask ourselves: are there local green spaces near me where trees could be planted that would enhance rather than reduce their amenity value?  

“We are interested in the planting of native woodland, but also encouraging the creation of orchards and areas of nut trees, wooded margins for nature friendly farming, and the establishment of new hedgerows in place of ugly fences.”

For the ground mapping of potential woodland creation sites the charity needs reliable information on existing young woodland in the green belt, but also more widely across London. This will reveal where planting can join together with established woodland habitat. Mature woodland is likely to be on the map already – but details of younger woodland (planted within the last 20 years) and newly planted saplings need to be collected.

Locals can help by registering possible locations for new woodland creation, or the location of existing young woodlands by filling in the survey here Tree and Woodland Data Collection (arcgis.com) or simply emailing woodlandcreation@cprelondon.org.uk and briefly describing the location. 

If you are unable to help with the mapping but would love to be involved, the charity is asking for donations towards the project here.

To find out more contact CPRE London on woodlandcreation@cprelondon.org.uk

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