Yorkshire Dales tree planting scheme to resume this winter

Almost all the trees planted at a site in Coverdale last winter had established despite unfavourable conditions

Tree planting is due to resume in the Yorkshire Dales, as part of efforts to create the Northern Forest.

About 2.3 sq miles (600 hectares) of woodland will be created this winter, stated the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA).

It intends to create 0.1 sq miles (43 hectares), with other groups planning to complete the remaining woodland.

Planting will begin before Christmas and continue until March, the authority said.

Just 5% of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is now said to be covered by trees

Bosses said the aim was to increase the area of the national park covered in woodland from about 4% in 2020 to 7% by 2030.

Despite long periods of dry weather earlier in the year, "almost all" trees planted last winter at Moorhen Farm, near West Scrafton in Coverdale, had established.

The planting is being paid for using cash from the government-funded Grow Back Greener scheme. Now in its second season, the initiative is run by The Woodland Trust as part of the wider Northern Forest project.

Mark Corner, from YDNPA, thanked farmers and landowners for their support.

He said: "There has never been so much public funding for woodland creation in the National Park than there is now, at least not since the days of conifer afforestation in the 1960s and 70s."

However, Mr Corner conceded there were parts of the national park deemed unsuitable for woodland creation.

He said: "Farmland such as traditional hay meadows, as well as peatlands and the best breeding grounds for wading birds like curlew are examples of land unsuitable for woodland. But there are also thousands of hectares ideally suited for woodland creation.

"The one-hectare woodland we created at Moorhen Farm last winter is a perfect case study of 'right tree, right place'. It is in a steep-sided ghyll by a watercourse, where there are already mature trees and woodland flora such as bluebells. In effect, it is an expansion of an existing woodland."

The Northern Forest scheme will see 50 million trees planted from coast to coast and around cities such as Liverpool, York, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Hull by 2043.