Climate change: Free tree offered to every Welsh household

From tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow...

Every household in Wales will be offered a free tree to plant in an effort to help tackle climate change.

People will have a choice of native species to plant in their gardens or have added to woodland on their behalf.

About 1.3 million trees will be made available by the Welsh government, in a scheme which will cost £2m.

Deputy climate change minister Lee Waters said the scheme could help, but there still needed to be a greater increase in planting trees.

"To meet our climate change targets, we have to plant 86 million trees by the end of this decade," he said.

Every household in Wales will be offered a free tree to plant at home or in a woodland

"That's an increase every year of 15-fold. So it's a hell of a challenge, as well as a climate emergency."

• Farmer's fury over £15k tree planting scheme fine

• 'Keep I'm A Celeb in UK to help climate change'

• Tiny forest of 600 trees to tackle climate change

Scientists have debated whether tree planting should be used as a way of combatting carbon emissions, but Mr Waters said there was an urgent need to try new initiatives and the benefits of tree planting go beyond capturing carbon.

He said: "We are in a climate emergency and that word emergency is really important. We can't wait for a perfect solution and we have got to try stuff and we've got to do it fast.

"We know trees help deal with flooding, they help your well-being, there's very good evidence that being around trees reduces your stress and your blood pressure. There's evidence to show that areas with lots of trees have a lower crime rate."

Lee Waters said Wales "cannot wait for the perfect solution" to combat climate change

Jerry Langford, of Coed Cadw - the Woodland Trust in Wales - said he was confident people would succeed in nurturing trees in their gardens.

"Trees are tough actually," he said, "you've got to treat them pretty badly to kill a tree. So just a bit of tender loving care, and it will be fine.

"They need a supply of water and they need to need to make sure they don't get swamped by competing vegetation."

The trees will be available from five hubs from March, with a further 20 in the autumn of 2022.

Coed Cadw will plant the trees which people opt not to have in their gardens.

• HAYLEY PEARCE PODCAST : Tackling the issues that make your group chats go off

• WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?: Food for the mind, and inspiration for the soul