Behind the scenes: Our tree nursery is giving back
Our tree nursery is growing trees on a large scale from seed that has been collected from within the Forest. During the autumn months our tree nursery team along with volunteers have been busy preparing for the winter months, in particular tree planting season.
What happens in the tree nursery?
Growing trees from seed collected from within the Forest or from carefully selected sites outside of our land ensures that the trees we grow are of native provenance. All trees are grown on our own soil, with no seeds from abroad, ensuring strong biosecurity for both the nursery and the UK by reducing contamination risks to national tree stock.
Growing trees on this scale will not only help with our charitable mission but will also have the capacity to help deliver the government’s tree planting commitment to plant 30,000 hectares (over 75,000 acres) every year by 2050.
Autumn in the tree nursey
From September to December, the focus is harvesting seed from the Forest. Volunteers have been invaluable in helping with this task. To get the volume of seed we require to grow over a million trees, would be impossible with the tree nursery staff alone!
Volunteers not only collect seed but help with processing them too. This involves removing the flesh of the berries collected and ultimately ending up with just seeds. It is gratifying to see the process from berries hanging on the trees in the forest, to bags of seed ready for planting in the spring.
Providing for the future
The tree nursery is providing one third of the broadleaf trees this year for the Forest’s tree planting season and every year we are increasing the number of species we are growing. This winter's harvest will provide six different species for the Heart of England Forest sites in Naunton Beauchamp and Parkfield Farm. This year we are collecting 25 species for harvesting in 2026/27.
Working in the tree nursery is an opportunity to help build the forests of the future with resilient, native, biosecure trees for our children and our children’s children to enjoy.
Support us
It is now more important than ever that we all do our part to safeguard nature for the future. Your donations make a direct and positive impact in the Forest Donate | Heart of England Forest:
£9 could pay for our Forest Team to plant 2 trees, including buying the saplings and the protective materials they need to survive and thrive.
£50 could fund 10 young people with special educational needs to spend a morning volunteering in our tree nursery.
