Over the last few years Countrycare has worked closely with organisations such as the City of London, Tree Council, Woodland Trust, The Green Arc and Essex County Council to campaign and protect our ancient and veteran trees. This was has been reflected in projects such as the 50 Favourite Trees and the ongoing Epping Forest Veteran Tree Hunt.
Now, a new and exciting project is coming to south west Essex that will once again see EFDC Countrycare partnering up with others to achieve great things for the old trees and woodlands in the district and beyond.
As a direct response to last years' tree initiative, the natural environment team at Essex County Council have developed a project that hopes to further protect and expand the ancient trees and woodlands across south west Essex. By working closely with landowners and farmers the project will aim to enable planting of new hedgerows, trees and woods that will reconnect isolated ancient trees and woodlands. In parallel two further projects will see major enhancement works to a number of woods and a scientific study of trees and woods in south west Essex.
Essex County Council has partnered with Forest Research, Kent County Council, the South Downs AONB and four French authorities lead by Pas de Calais. The group will run a project called “Multifor” which aims to protect and manage forests and woodlands on both sides of the Channel and promoting them for education, leisure and commerce.
The project will run over three years (starting April 2009) and has a total value of €2.49 million with €381,000 being allocated to Essex. Essex County Council’s local partners include ourselves in Epping as well as Harlow Council, The National Trust, The Woodland Trust, the City of London (Epping Forest), the BTCV and the Forestry Commission.
Revisit this page to see how the project develops.