Plans to plant a new forest in north Bristol

In winter 2021, planting will begin at a brand new forest.

Acorn, which will be located near Almondsbury in north Bristol, will be the inaugural site of Co-forest, an organisation hoping to inspire people across the UK to plant their own local forests.

“Co-forest is all about togetherness for nature – we bring people and organisations in an area together to collectively tackle the climate and biodiversity crises on their doorstep,” says Katrina Kelly, co-founder of the initiative.

“Co-foresters contribute to the financial needs of creating a new forest – from buying the land and trees, to protecting them and managing the new forest into the future.

“We are planting trees right here in Britain for biodiversity as well as to capture carbon – this means we have a management plan to ensure our forests are well looked after and kept in good health over the years to come.”

Bath-based Katrina, who founded the organisation with husband David, hopes Co-forest can become a way to mitigate climate change.

The pair have teamed up with The Woodland Trust, Storm Consultancy and EcoWild, as well as businesses across Bristol and Bath, to turn their vision of bettering the planet into a reality. The first site, Acorn, will begin taking shape in winter of 2021.

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“We found our site in Almondsbury in January but had to wait until now to complete on it as we wanted to carry out ecological surveys to ensure we would be benefitting the area by planting a new forest,” says Katrina, who runs Co-forest in her spare time with her husband.

“It is really important to us that we don’t just plant trees, but that we plant the right trees in the best places – places where we are extending habitats, improving biodiversity and not causing any negative damage.

“Acorn is our inaugural forest site, and as our initial Co-foresters (the companies and individuals who have made this site purchase possible) are based in Bristol and Bath, we promised our first site would be within 15 miles of either city.”

The site will be easily accessible for those living in Bristol, with Katrina and David hoping to work with schools and social groups in the north of the city to give as many people as possible, of all ages, opportunities to experience planting and caring for trees.

Co-forest say that more than 1.5 million hectares of new woodland is needed in Britain to help reach the UK’s net-zero carbon target by 2050 – around the same size as Yorkshire. Trees cool the planet by absorbing harmful greenhouse gases and releasing clean oxygen back into the atmosphere.

Katrina’s daughter, Rosemary, was the one who initially suggested that her parents help plant more trees. Photo: Katrina Kelly

In the coming winter months, Co-forest will be planting 10,000 trees at the Acorn site, with the help of volunteers. Trees are best planted between October and March, hence the later start to planting despite already having a site, and access needs to be improved for volunteers and vehicles.

“We actually have very little forest here in the South West compared to some parts of the country and that became very clear during the pandemic when a small number of our local public woodlands became extremely busy as people looked for places to walk – tree equity is a real problem,” says Katrina,

“We want to change that – everyone should have access to a forest.”

Main photo of Katrina and David: Katrina Kelly

Read more: Tiny Forest created on path of land in Southmead