Ambitious plans for the creation of a vast new woodland between Bath and Bristol are close to becoming a reality this winter.

More than 1,000 volunteers, led by pioneering woodland creation charity Avon Needs Trees, are poised to begin establishing the first of 100,000 native trees and shrubs on the 422 acre Lower Chew Forest site.

For this to happen, the charity is urgently seeking the final £100,000 necessary to complete the multi-million pound project. If their crowdfunding campaign is successful, the first trees of the Lower Chew Forest will go into the ground this winter.

As of now, the charity met their initial target of £50,000 on its crowdfunding page and has now extended their stretch target to £80,000 in order to focus on the long term care of the trees planted.

Equivalent in area to 265 football pitches, the ‘forest-sized’ woodland would form a mosaic habitat boasting miles of nature rich hedgerow, precious wetlands and rolling grassland.

As well as reducing flood risk, boosting biodiversity and providing rare woodland habitat in a nature-depleted area of the country, the site would also provide 5km+ of permissive paths for public benefit.

Since 2019, the charity has been instrumental in planting over 50,000 new native trees in a catchment that is heavily nature-depleted. Its new project, Lower Chew Forest is its boldest to date.

The first week of December saw the launch of a Christmas reward, where a donation of £50 will pay for the planting and care of two trees - one for the sender and one for the recipient, alongside a personalised Christmas card an opportunity to join one of the tree planting days in the new year.

There are more than 1,200 volunteers ready to begin planting the first trees of the Lower Chew Forest, a vast new forest of over 1,000 new trees between Bristol and Bath.

Over our campaign, Avon Needs Trees have had the support of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Mya-Rose Craig, Ben Goldsmith and many more.

“This is the biggest opportunity in a generation for us to turn around the critically low percentage of woodland cover in our region” says Dave Wood, CEO of Avon Needs Trees. “The benefits of increasing this cover include helping to mitigate climate change, improving biodiversity connectivity and offering a place for people to volunteer, learn and connect with nature.”

The crowdfunding page can be found here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/lower-chew-forest