What makes a forest, a community forest?

Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest is an exciting new project that will see 100s of new trees planted across the city. The forest will stretch from the heart of the city to the edge of the moor, encompassing 1,900 hectares of land.

What makes it different?

Unlike traditional forests, community forests are not geographically restricted to one place. Instead, they are spread out across a mix of community woodland, private woodland, on street, urban woodland, wooded habitat corridors, orchards, and hedgerows.

It will be carefully co-ordinated to get a mix of species, with the right species in the right places.

How will it benefit the area?

The forest will create space for nature and young people will be at the heart of its design, implementation, and management, now and for generations to come.

Specifics include:

·       increasing canopy cover in the area by 20%

·       increasing carbon capture by 83% from current levels

·       providing 353 jobs over 10 years including apprenticeships

·       delivering health benefits worth £5.7million a year

Who’s involved?

The proposals have been drawn up a broad initial partnership between Plymouth City Council, National Trust, Woodland Trust, South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council, the Forestry Commission, Forestry England, Devon Wildlife Trust, Plymouth Tree Partnership and Dartmoor National Park. It is funded through the Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs’ Nature for Climate fund.

What next?

Plymouth City Council will be running extensive consultation with residents and talking to landowners to see if they want to get involved. Then the first of the 353 jobs will start to be advertised!

More information can be found here.

By Tamsin Mosse, FPA Writer & Content Producer

August 2021