Council delighted by ‘micro woods’ grant win

City of York Council has won a £39,000 grant to plant more trees in the city from the DEFRA / Forestry Commission ‘Coronation Living Heritage Fund’.

This fund was set up to support local tree planting initiatives to commemorate the Coronation of King Charles III. The grant will support CYC’s tree planting ambitions through 100% funding of two new ‘micro woods’.

The micro woods, which will each be approximately the size of a tennis court, are to be developed using the ‘Miyawaki’ method, regarded as one of the most effective methods when planting trees on land that has been used for other purposes such as agriculture or construction.

The method is effective because it uses trees native to the area and has some significant benefits; trees grow faster, and capture more carbon with higher biodiversity recorded in Miyawaki forests than in neighbouring woodland.

The council will consult community stakeholders and will be inviting suggestions for sites, which must be publicly accessible. Ideas can be submitted by email to yorkgreenstreets@york.gov.uk by 31 January 2024. Sites will be chosen in Spring 2024.

Councillor Jenny Kent, Joint Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency a City of York Council, said;

“This is fantastic news. We can’t wait to showcase small scale, high density, native tree planting in York. This is in addition to planting 4,000 trees across the City as part of our Green Streets programme.

Trees are vital to capture carbon, improve air quality, help biodiversity, provide shade and cooling in hotter temperatures, increase absorption of water to help prevent flash flooding, and let’s not forget, are beautiful to look at and walk among.

Congratulations to all involved; we would love to hear your suggestions for planting sites.”

The award will further contribute to City of York Council’s tree canopy expansion target and builds on the success of York Community Woodland and York Green Streets (urban tree planting) projects.

York Community Woodland – being delivered through a partnership between City of York Council and Forestry England – has won a number of awards, including the silver Community Woodland Award for Excellence in Forestry 2023 from the Royal Forestry Society.  Earlier this year the woodland won the John Boddy Award for ‘Best community woodland to be planted in Yorkshire in the past 15 years’.