Over 10,000 tonnes of carbon will be sequestered over seventy years with our tree planting scheme at this upstream location. This project is the first phase of our woodland creation programme, and to date 31,000 trees have been planted with a further 10,500 trees to be planted winter 2024 – 25. These first two phases have been supported by the Trees for Climate Fund through the White Rose Forest, a regional community forest that supports the creation of new woodland and developed in conjunction with our tenant farmers. The gross planting area across these two phases is 68ha of which about 30ha are wood pasture. Wood pastures are areas of grazing land with trees. Traditional management would include periodic cutting, pollarding of trees for fuel, and harvesting fodder for livestock.
This forms part of our wider commitment to plant 600,000 trees across the Estate over the next 20 years. We have an ambitious target to increase our “multi-functional” woodland cover from 711 hectares to 1050 hectares.
350 hectares of marginal land – agricultural land that is of low yield for the purposes of food production – has been identified for this purpose, and sites that are close to water courses that will help “slow the flow” in terms of flood control, preventing run-off and improving water quality are given priority.
Once planted, the health and management of these trees will be the responsibility of our forestry team using Continuous Cover Forestry. CCF is a more sympathetic way of managing woodlands, allowing them to be thinned and selectively felled to produce timber whilst maintaining a woodland canopy at all times allowing woodland ecosystems to thrive.
Running alongside this, our forestry team manages approximately 710ha of mixed broadleaf and coniferous woodland which are subject to a Forestry Commission approved UN Forestry Standard compliant 20-year Woodland Management Plan (WMP). This plan is compliant with the UK Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS) and is externally monitored. These semi-natural woodlands supply renewable woodchip for our carbon neutral bio-mass boilers, logs for firewood and timber. The Estate is also responsible for the preservation of several ancient woodlands – including six “Champion Trees” in the Parkland – which are highly valuable ecosystems that have been in the stewardship of the Estate since the 17th century.
