West Midlands Mayor Andy Street has welcomed a new £300,000 partnership which will aims to plant thousands of trees across the region.
The new partnership with the Woodland Trust is the latest in a tree-planting revolution in the West Midlands, that has included trees being planted at Aldridge Airport.
Mr Street, who leads the West Midlands Combined Authority, planted the first tree to celebrate the West Midlands receiving £300,000 from the Trust’s Emergency Tree Fund to help the region reach its environmental targets.
The funding will be used to identify ways to coordinate different projects and identify a minimum of eight sites to plant at least 4,000 native trees.
The launch event took place at the home of Kingstanding Regeneration Trust, a registered charity who recently received just over £19,000 from the WMCA as part of the community green grant scheme to transform an area of their park with significant planting and habitat creation.
The Mayor said: "I'm thrilled to launch the West Midlands Forest Partnership alongside the Woodland Trust as we look to further encourage tree planting in the region.
“The £300,000 funding awarded by the Trust will go a long way in supporting our #WM2041 ambition to be a net zero region within the next two decades and further expands the delivery of our Natural Environment Plan to protect, restore and enhance the region’s nature.
“We all know that planting trees is one of the best ways to help tackle the current climate crisis and improve the health and wellbeing of citizens, which is why this partnership is so important. Not only that, but our virtual forest now has more than 280,000 trees registered as we look to accelerate planting across the West Midlands.”
The Virtual Forest was launched in January 2020 to help the WMCA keep track of the trees being planted and to encourage everyone in the region to play their part and getting involved in making the West Midlands Greener Together.
Ultimately, the WMCA aims to increase the region’s forestry cover by 13% - the equivalent of planting an additional 5.7 million trees by 2026 – supporting its #WM2041 ambition to be a net zero region within the next two decades.
The funding is one of six awards being made around the UK from the Woodland Trust's Emergency Tree Fund following £2.1 million of support from Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund. The money will be awarded in grants to local authorities across the country, planting 450,000 trees and creating green spaces in local communities most impacted by pollution and with least access to nature.
The trees at Aldridge Airport were planted with the support of Severn Trent Water, as part of 15,000 planned for the borough in union with the Commonwealth Games.