Kettering tree planting weekend 'bonanza' for Queen's Green Jubilee Canopy

Keen green volunteers can boost the environment with a weekend of tree planting events in Kettering to mark The Queen’s 70th jubilee and add to the Queen's Green Canopy.

The mass community tree planting events across Kettering to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee year will see a collaboration of Wicksteed Park, North Northants Council (NNC), Kettering Town Council, the Kettering Eco Group, Alba Trees and Natural Ise.

Over the weekend 600 trees will be planted, starting with an event at Wicksteed Park's Paradise Spinney on the morning of Saturday, March 5.Another two events will take place in the afternoon from 2pm from 4pm on Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6.

Jamie Wildman, wildlife specialist and core volunteer driving the project, said: “The UK has lost over eight million trees this winter, with Northamptonshire being hit especially hard by last Halloween’s straight-line winds.

"The young saplings we are planting will take many years to begin cleaning the air as effectively as mature trees do, but by acting fast to compensate for those we’ve lost, NNC and our community is providing future generations of people across Kettering a new generation of trees to enjoy as quickly as possible.”

Saturday's afternoon event will take place just off Deeble Road alongside the River Ise, while the Sunday event will be at the Northampton Road Recreation Ground alongside Lake Avenue.

In addition to planting trees at these various sites, community members, groups, schools and organisations can apply to take away trees for planting at home or on a private site.

Green Party councillor Emily Fedorowycz, one of the organisers, said: "This is the first time we have been able to offer trees out to the public to take away and it’s really exciting.

"We’ve wanted to do this for so long and it means we can make an even bigger impact, and make this all even more inclusive.

“Schools can use onsite tree planting as part of outdoor education, we’ve got churches and care homes who want to go green and make use of small bits of space they own, and individuals who have space at home can enjoy a free tree. There’s so much potential and we just want everyone to be involved and have fun with this.”

The trees planted as part of the weekend events, and those taken away, will be added to the Queen's Green Canopy map being used to show the spread of the trees planted across the UK to commemorate Her Majesty’s 2022 Platinum Jubilee.

Community members and groups are able to sign up via this form: https://forms.gle/seQgVsL1gFpcTuM89