Local People Invited to Plan a New Woodland

By Gavin Engelbrecht

LOCAL people are being invited to help plan a new woodland.The Woodland Trust charity is intending to buy 203 acres of land, next to its site at Elemore Woods, Easington Lane.This will make it the trust’s largest site in the North-East. It will eventually provide public access to an area of woodland from Easington Lane and South Hetton to Littletown, a distance of about 2.5 miles.Trust regional development officer Sara Lyons said: “We are planning to plant 94,000 trees of native species. There will be a mixture of oak, ash, hazel and lime.”Fundraising has begun in earnest for the [pounds]1.35m project, which will also see rare magnesian limestone grassland restored and a wildflower meadow created.”The project will include an additional two miles of permissive pathway, as well as a cycleway.She added: “The Easington Lane area is one of the most deprived in the country.”A substantial area of new woodland could enhance the community’s quality of life.”It will provide people in the community with somewhere attractive, where they could visit and walk, play and spend their leisure time.”Project manager Gary Haley said: “We have already received [pounds]8,000 in pledges from the local community.”We want to engage with as many people in the community as possible.”We are hoping over the two years of the project to hold several weeks of school events, including tree planting.”Related to that, we hope to commission work sheets that teachers can download to take pupils out on environmental activities tied in with the National Curriculum.”County Durham Environmental Trust has pledged [pounds]550,000 under the Landfill Communities Fund to the project. The Heritage Lottery Fund has granted [pounds]259,500, Biffa [pounds]51,000 and the Sita Trust [pounds]131,000.The trust hopes to own the site soon.Residents will be invited to contribute toward plans for the site and there will be many opportunities to get actively involved. For further information about the project, call 01476-581-1111.

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