A countryside team from the National Trust in West Cornwall, along with local community groups, have planted 800 trees on the edge of Godolphin woods as part of the National Trust’s ambition to plant 20 million trees by 2030.

A mixture of 22 different native species were planted by hand as part of a woodland planting programme, funded by Forest For Cornwall who paid for the supply of the saplings.

John Cartwright, area ranger for the West Cornwall countryside team, said: “Increasing our woodland and forests is one of the simplest ways we can tackle climate change because trees are like the superheroes of the environment; they mitigate against the effects of climate change and preserve biodiversity.

Trees lock in carbon emissions that otherwise contribute towards global warming by absorbing and storing carbon, and at the same time improve biodiversity by providing shelter, food and habitats for wildlife such as insects, small mammals and birds.”

The countryside team reached out to local community groups and organisations they work with to help achieve this winter’s tree planting ambitions.

Among the community groups was Shifting Horizons, a small Community Interest Company who offer Forest and Beach school early intervention programmes to young people in West Penwith, members from the Godolphin Cross Community Association, and participants from Bys Vyken, a Cornish running events company.

Martin Penney, director at Bys Vyken, said: “We are a Cornish trail events company and it is very important for us to give back to the local community. We’ve been working with the National Trust for several years and the team gave us the opportunity to help with green projects and to put something back into the countryside that we love so much.”

Of the 250,000 hectares of land the National Trust cares for, 10 per cent is woodland. The charity has made a commitment to increase this to 17 per cent by planting 20 million trees by 2030.