Building a Community Nature Reserve Together
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Kent High Weald Partnership are launching a new project to plant 2,500 trees.
The initiative which is to be launched later this year will encourage landowners, residents, businesses and schools to provide space for nature and collectively create the Community Nature Reserve.
Dedicating just a 2m2 piece of land is all that’s needed for people to create their own mini-reserve and be part of the mega-Community Nature Reserve, and to help them get started there will be a free tree giveaway scheme when up to 2,500 trees will be available to people signing up to the project.
The council will provide £5,000 for the first year of the project. Over time the aim is for the nature reserve to reach at least the size of a football pitch, it will provide opportunities for citizen science projects and measurable nature and climate achievements.
Cabinet Member for Environment & Sustainability, Councillor Rob Wormington said: ‘This project will provide a boost to biodiversity in the borough and is a great way for local people to support nature. This is exactly the type of thing we hoped to achieve when we made our tree planting pledge.’
Partnership Manager for Kent High Weald Partnership Cally Fiddimore said: ‘We are very excited as this funding will enable us, in partnership with TWBC, to take this project forward and create more space for nature in Tunbridge Wells.’
Planting trees is one of the actions in the council’s Strategic Plan and this project aligns closely with that. It also ties in with the strategic commitment to increase biodiversity.
