The White Rose Forest has been awarded England’s Community Forest of the Year at the annual England’s Community Forests (ECF) conference in Bristol.
The award was presented by Professor Eunice Symmons, Chair of the Mersey Forest Partnership, to Director Guy Thompson, in recognition of the White Rose Forest’s leading role in woodland creation in England and the support and expertise the team provides to the wider Community Forests network.
The White Rose Forest is the Community Forest for North and West Yorkshire, working with landowners, local government and communities to plan, fund and plant trees where they are needed the most.
The 2023-24 planting season was a record breaker across the ECF network with almost 2000 hectares of new woodland and hedgerows planted. The White Rose Forest team were responsible for over 800 hectares of that total, the equivalent of approximately 1200 football pitches of new trees and woodland.
Guy Thompson, Director of the White Rose Forest, said,
“On behalf of our team and Kirklees Council as Accountable Body for our partnership, I’m proud to bring this award back to Yorkshire. It’s testament to the dedication and hard work of our team and partners that we have been able to support more landowners and woodland creation projects than ever before over the last year.
“All our work aims to protect and improve our natural environment and local communities across North and West Yorkshire. We’re now working on our long-term 25 year plan for woodland creation and management across the region and look forward to working with our partners in local, regional and national government, our national parks, landowners and communities across North and West Yorkshire to deliver this.”
To see some of the highlights from the 2023-24 planting season visit The White Rose Forest – YouTube.