Villages and towns all over eastern and southern Derbyshire will benefit from hundreds of thousands of new trees in the years to come.

Derbyshire County Council will begin planting the first of 300,000 trees in January 2025 that will form part of the Derbyshire Heartwood Community Forest – a band of green stretching from villages like Etwall and Repton in South Derbyshire up to Dronfield and Clowne in the north of the county.

Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest, which is the community forest for Derbyshire, is one of 15 community forest projects across England and is funded by Defra’s Nature for Climate Fund.

If landowners think they’ve got a suitable site – likely to be between 0.5 and 5 hectares or above – grants are available for tree planting and DCC can advise on design, carry out tree planting, fund infrastructure like gates and fencing and provide support for maintenance that helps tree planting fully establish over a 15-year period.

Landowners can find detailed information and a large-scale map by following this link Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest – Derbyshire County Council