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Tree Planting Project Gets Underway

GREEN fingered children in Liverpool have helped launch a city-wide tree planting programme (Friday, 24 March).

Liverpool City Council is piloting the project at seven primary schools with the aim of enabling every 10-year old child in the city to plant a tree within the next three years.

The council has teamed up The Mersey Forest and The One Tree Per Child scheme to plant 5,000 new trees by 2019. One Tree Per Child is the international tree planting initiative that was founded by film-star Olivia Newton-John and environmentalist Jon Dee to connect young people with the natural environment.

To support the pilot, the council is also awarding Tree Champion status to four other primary schools to act as mentors and has identified four city parks for the planting to take place: Newsham, Walton Hall, Otterspool and Alt Meadows.

The scheme will be the first key recommendation to be implemented from the recently published Green Spaces Review, which called for children to have greater engagement with the city’s parks.

Liverpool’s One Tree per Child pilot schools are:  Croxteth Primary, · Florence Melly Primary – Walton, Lister Drive Junior School – Tuebrook, Northcote Primary – Walton, Our Lady & St Swithins RC Primary – Croxteth, Pinehurst Primary – Anfield, St Charles Primary – Aigburth,  St Michaels Primary – Aigburth.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson was at St. Teresa’s of Lisieux to appoint them as the city’s first Tree Champion school, inspect their edible playground and join pupils in planting a tree.

Later in the day pupils from Pinehurst Primary helped to plant 50 cherry blossom trees in Stanley Park in addition to sowing wild flower seeds.

Mayor Anderson said: “I’m delighted that thousands of children in Liverpool are going to be more actively engaged with their local environment through this tree planting scheme.

“Education is the root of a more caring society and a cornerstone to civic pride. Raising awareness of the natural world in such a stimulating way, away from the classroom, is a great step forward and will have huge benefits for our local communities.”

The Mersey Forest team has also been working with pupils at St. Teresa’s over the past few months, to create a new Forest School Woodland for future outdoor learning complementing the edible playground work already undertaken at the school by Trees for Cities.

Paul Nolan, Director of The Mersey Forest said: “We are looking forward to working with partners on this exciting programme. A tree for every child and lots of forest schools across the city is a great ambition and we hope to help make it happen.”

TV presenter Kevin McCloud, One Tree Per Child ambassador, said: “Congratulations to Liverpool for embracing One Tree Per Child. It’s a fantastic initiative and I’m really looking forward to seeing the people of the city getting behind it.”

 

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