Greenwood Community Forest champion, Councillor James Gamble, visited Brinsley on Monday to see how former farmland is being transformed into new woodland.

Monarch Wood, near Willey Wood Farm, has been created as part of the Defra-funded Trees for Climate programme, sponsored by the Woodland Trust, our Green Investment Fund, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and delivered by the Greenwood Community Forest Initiative.

Greenwood, which is hosted and supported by our conservation team, has been a huge success story since 2020, with more than 757,000 trees planted on 578 hectares countywide – including around 33,000 trees at Monarch Wood.

As well as Monarch Wood, Greenwood has worked with partners to use Trees for Climate funding to purchase sites to plant new trees at Thorney Abbey Farm, near Southwell, and Debdale Hill Wood at Little Carlton.

Cllr Gamble said: “I was delighted to visit Monarch Wood to see how the thousands of new trees are growing and developing.

“Woodland creation schemes like this bring a wide range of benefits, such as environmental, social and economic, to local communities and make a difference to the lives of residents and those of generations to come.”

Monarch Wood was acquired by the council in 2022 and, in the same year, it was awarded Platinum Woods status by the Woodland Trust, a leading delivery partner of the Queen's Green Canopy – which is an initiative creating a legacy in honour of the late Queen, with its key aim to plant trees in communities to enhance their environment.