As part of our sustainable promise, our team travelled to Marston Moretaine where we were met by a representative who gave us more information on the cause and also showed us how to correctly plant a tree. We discovered that the Forest of Marston Vale is a community forest and a charity, planting trees and using woodlands to make life better for the people and wildlife in the 61 square mile area of the Marston Vale, between Bedford and Milton Keynes. The charity has planted over 2 million trees to transform the landscape and improve the prospects of the Marston Vale environmentally, socially and economically.
The environmental benefits of trees are numerous and well documented – they help to cool and clean our air, lock up carbon, reduce flooding, provide sustainable raw materials, and are our best hope in combatting the climate crisis.
Tree planting is a winter activity and the charity plants 2-year-old saplings when they are in their dormant winter state. By the end of the 2023 winter season, the forest will have over 200,000 trees and shrubs, including completing the planting at Queens Wood – the 13th community woodland, which site on the Ampthill/Houghton Conquest border in Bedfordshire.
On Friday the 3rd of March, our Cafea UK team went to Queens Wood to help plant 150 saplings of native English broadleaf trees, including oak, hornbeam, alder, wild cherry, rowan, field maple, silver birch and a small leaved lime.
The forest of Marston Vale’s ultimate goal is 30% tree cover across the forest area, and that means planting another 5 million trees.