Jonathon Porritt Plants 6 Millionth Tree

The media turned out in force when leading international environmentalist Jonathon Porritt CBE made his first visit to The National Forest to plant the Six Millionth Tree.

Jonathon Porritt is Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission and Co-Director of the Prince of Wales Business and Environment Programme. Before planting the ceremonial tree he toured some of the sites in The National Forest with staff from the National Forest Company (NFC), and learnt more about the biggest, boldest environmental project in the country.

He said: “The National Forest meets so many of the criteria about sustainable development, not just improving the environment, but doing so in connection with local communities and creating new sources of wealth. It is doing it in such a way that will be relevant for all future generations as well as for this generation. It is a pioneering initiative for the UK as a whole, and a beacon of hope for an awful lot of people.”

Viv Astling, Chairman, NFC said: “We are delighted that Jonathon Porritt has helped us celebrate this mighty milestone in the Forest’s development. This has been a great opportunity to tell the story of the huge scale of the achievement here – not only the planting of six million trees, but also a real story of partnership, environmental progress, farming diversification, nature and wildlife conservation - to one of the most prominent environmentalists in the world.”

The species chosen for the ceremonial planting at the Bath Grounds in Ashby de la Zouch, was a Golden Ash, one of the few ornamental varieties of the native ash tree, with spectacular butter yellow autumn colour and golden young shoots in the winter. An ash tree is particularly apt as the name Ashby originally means ‘settlement amongst ash trees’.