Our Parish Clerk has received a letter from the Richmondshire Climate Change Partnership, inviting communities across the district to help tackle climate change by participating in a tree planting scheme this autumn / winter. Trees, shelters and posts could be provided free of charge by the partnership and/or District Council, but volunteers are invited to plant the trees and to look after them subsequently. The main part of the letter is shown below and the full letter, including guidance on site selection and soil type, can be see by clicking here.

Vicky has sent a reply indicating an interest but needs to find out if villagers want to do this and if so, ideas on where trees could be planted.

Please send your thoughts to Vicky by email at  parishclerk@thorntonsteward.org.uk.

Dear Sir/Madam,

COMMUNITREE Tree Planting in Communities across Richmondshire

This letter is to invite your Council or Meeting to participate in a community tree planting programme this autumn/winter. The Council, in partnership with the recently formed Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership Group, would like all the communities across the district to take part, and through this programme, we can support you all the way.

Trees are a very visible and attractive way for you to demonstrate that your organisation is tackling climate change, and tree planting projects can be a great way of bringing the community together. Trees can help to tackle climate change by taking the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, out of the atmosphere and can help to reduce overheating in built up areas. There are 54 Town and Parish Councils and 26 Parish Meetings across the district, and we would like to see each Council or Meeting plant up to 30 trees over this coming autumn/winter period, on sites which are accessible to the general public and safe from damage by livestock, e.g., public open spaces, village greens, churchyards, sports grounds etc. Trees, shelters and posts can be provided free of charge by the Partnership and/or District Council, but we would look to you to identify volunteers to plant the trees and look after them subsequently. Advice can be given on any aspect of the planting, if needed.

At this stage, we are looking for expressions of interest, so that we can gauge how many trees, volunteers and other support you might need – no firm commitment is necessary at this stage but if you can commit
now, then that’s great! 

If you are interested in being involved, please could you complete and return the attached/enclosed expression of interest form to climate.change@richmondshire.gov.uk no later than Friday 6 th August
2021, or if you do not have e-mail, post to Climate Change Officer, Richmondshire District Council, Mercury House, Station Road, Richmond, DL10 4JX. If you think your Council or Meeting will want to be involved
but you cannot meet this deadline, please get in touch saying when you think you will be able to respond.

Yours faithfully,
Valerie Adams
Climate Change Officer
(01748) 901136
climate.change@richmondshire.gov.uk
(On behalf of Valerie Adams, Richmondshire District Council and Bob Sampson, Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership)