At the weekend,City of Trees were joined by nearly 200 volunteers including Radio 1 DJ, actor and presenter Cel Spellman and Youth Strike Manchester organiser Emma Greenwood.
The event was part of a national campaign led by the Woodland Trust – The Big Climate Fightback – which aimed to encourage one million people to join the fight against climate change by pledging to support tree planting.
City of Trees is the Greater Manchester part of the Northern Forest and organised the event which took place at Boz Park in Bury as part of National Tree Week.
They are calling on Greater Manchester residents to help them plant half a million trees by the end of tree planting season – March 2020.
On the day nearly 200 volunteers dug deep to help sow the new saplings with over 1,000 new trees taking root at the urban green space in Whitefield, Bury.
As well as local volunteers Radio 1 DJ and Cold Feet actor Cel Spellman joined in the planting as a passionate advocate for the environment.
Cel comments: “Trees are going to be so integral in this fight against climate change. As we know we are on a very precarious timeline, we only have so long before what we have done to this earth is too devastating and we’ve left it too late.”
He adds; “Trees are going to be a big player in turning things around”.
City of Trees was also joined by Emma Greenwood, aged 15, a member of the organisation Youth Strike for Climate and Youth MP for Bury.
She said: “I hope the City of Trees initiative will push people to realise the importance of trees for our planet and the true power they have to save our world.”
The charity is calling on people to support their work connecting more people to nature by volunteering and donating. Every £10 helps plant a tree.
The Big Climate Fightback is about tackling the climate crisis, which represents the most significant danger to the long-term health of global ecosystems.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) report in May this year outlines the increase in woodland expansion needed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Jessica Thompson, Director of City of Trees, said: “City of Trees has an ambition to plant a tree for every person living here and this campaign feeds into our much bigger plan to plant at least 3million trees in the next 30 years.”
Find out more and donate at www.cityoftrees.org.uk/
