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How will my donation be used?
We work in partnership with local councils, national and local organisations, local businesses, community groups and schools to improve the local environment, quality of life and promote sustainable development.
Our Climate Active! projects focus on:
- Raising awareness and helping people take action on climate change
- Reducing carbon emissions by helping people live lower carbon lifestyles
- Planting trees to help adapt to the impacts of climate change
- Improving the environment and quality of life for all
Your Climate Active! donation is divided between our Climate Change Fund, Free Trees Scheme and Street Trees Fund.
We support local projects using these three elements of Climate Active! to deliver our work on climate change - you help to support all of this work when you make a donation!
Forest of Avon
Climate Change Fund
Our Climate Change Fund supports local projects that help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and raise public awareness.
Reducing carbon dioxide emissions, or climate change 'mitigation', is important as it means reducing the levels of greenhouse gasses (particularly carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere to help slow / lessen the potential impacts of climate change.
The way we work to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is by supporting local projects that improve public access, green space and community woodland to improve the local environment help people live lower carbon, healthier lifestyles.
One third of your Climate Active! donation goes into the Climate Change Fund.
The Climate Change Fund supports the following:
Community woodland and green space
We work to provide publicly accessible woodland and green space close to where people live so that they can visit and enjoy these sites on foot or by cycling a short distance from their home.
Your donation will help us to improve the quality and increase provision of these sites - helping cut carbon emissions from car use and helping local people live healthier lifestyles.
Sustainable transport and public access routes
We work to improve public footpaths and cycle routes to provide sustainable ways for people to more easily access the countryside, visit local woodland / green space or to get to and from work without having to use a car.
Your donation will support the improvement and development these key local routes – helping to reduce carbon emissions and improve quality of life locally.
Raising awareness of climate change
We believe it is essential to raise public awareness of climate change and help individuals, businesses and organisations take positive steps to help, change their lifestyles and improve their local environment.
We work to:
- raise awareness of climate change and Climate Active! and provide people with opportunities to change their lifestyles and improve their local environment.
- promote more effectively community woodland and green space so that people can use and enjoy them and help with climate change at the same time.
- encourage and help people find out about and use recreational routes and cycle routes.
- enable local communities, schools and individuals to use, value and enjoy the local environment and live more sustainable lifestyles.
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Forest of Avon
Free Trees Scheme and
Street Trees Fund
Our Free Trees Scheme and Street Trees Fund deliver our work on climate change adaptation.
Climate change adaptation involves preparing for, and adapting to, the predicted impacts of climate change.
Some of the predicted changes to our climate in the South West are hotter, drier, longer summers and warmer, wetter winters. Additionally, we are likely to have to prepare for the increased frequency, unpredictability and severity of extreme weather events such as winter storms, heavy rainfall, flooding and soil erosion.
Adaptation includes, for example, sustainable flood and drainage management, techniques to reduce the impact of hotter summers, natural habitat protection and expansion, water efficiency and sustainable housing construction and design.
We help with climate change adaptation by planting trees to create and maintain an environment more resilient to changes to our climate.
There are, of course, many other benefits from planting trees and woodland. They provide timber and wood products and a source of renewable energy. Additionally, they improve our environment, make our towns and cities more pleasant places to be, provide a focus for education, improve our quality of life, health and emotional well being and provide places to walk, cycle and relax.
In relation specifically to helping adapt to climate change, however, trees and woodland play an important role by:
- Reducing the impact of heavy rain and the severity and extent of flooding. Planting woodland helps to regulate the flow of water into rivers and streams and slow the rate at which floodwater passes downstream.
- Providing shelter from high winds. Trees slow down wind speeds. The shelter from trees and woods in towns also reduces the heating and air-conditioning costs of buildings – helping to reduce annual energy consumption.
- Reducing water loss. With hotter, dryer summers predicted water conservation is an important issue. Planting trees helps to safeguard water supplies in the long term by ensuring a steady flow into underground water sources rather than being lost into drains by running off hard surfaces such as roads and car parks.
- Strengthening and protecting biodiversity. Planting trees and expanding and linking our woodlands and green spaces is essential if we are to give plants and animals the chance to move and migrate in response to climate change.
- Providing shade. The shade of trees provides a barrier to the sun as well as reducing heat-induced stress. Provision of summer shade is likely to become increasingly important to adapt to the higher temperatures resulting from climate change. This is particularly important in urban areas where temperatures are likely to be considerably higher.
- Cooling the air. As trees lose moisture from their leaves, the surrounding air is cooled. This, coupled with the shade they cast, and the heat reflected upwards from their leaves, significantly reduces summer air temperature in towns.
Additionally, of course, trees take up and store carbon dioxide – helping with climate change mitigation. Simply planting more trees to offset our carbon emissions, however, is not the answer to climate change. Nevertheless, this is an added benefit every time a tree is planted.
Forest of Avon Free Tree Scheme
The Free Trees Scheme is exactly what it says it is – a source of free trees for planting throughout the Forest of Avon.
The aim of the scheme is to encourage tree planting and new woodland creation.
Under the Free Tree Scheme, we provide trees for free to community groups, schools, parishes and local councils for use in appropriate community planting projects to create new woodlands, copses, hedges and small clumps of trees.
Trees for the scheme will be bought from the BTCV Forest of Avon Tree Life Centre, a local community tree nursery, and support their work in growing native tree species from locally collected seed.
One third of your donation goes to the Free Tree Scheme. For every £5 we can plant a tree. So, with a donation of £30 to Climate Active! we can plant two trees as well as support our other work on climate change!
Can I get Free Trees for my school or community group?
There are a few criteria. To find out if you qualify, simply download the Free Trees Form, fill it in and send it to us. We'll take it from there.
Forest of Avon Street Trees Fund
The aim of the Street Trees Fund is to help community groups, schools, parishes and local councils to plant and care for more trees in streets, green spaces, parks and school grounds in villages, towns and cities in the Forest of Avon.
Street trees and larger trees in our parks and school grounds are, however, considerably more costly to plant and maintain as they are generally larger and often require significant additional works to roads and pavements before they can be planted.
That’s why we have established the Forest of Avon Street Trees Fund.
One third of your Climate Active donation will go to the Street Trees Fund. When everyone’s donations are put together, we can support more planting of these larger urban trees.
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