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Forest Direct and Traquair Estate celebrate National Tree Week and Damhead Planting Scheme

Dec 6, 2020

To celebrate National Tree Week, Catherine Maxwell Stuart of Traquair Estate in the Scottish Borders and her daughter Isabella Stuart-Grey have today joined Alice Brawley, Planning Manager at Forest Direct to plant a crab apple tree in honour of the UK’s largest tree celebration.

The tree planting also marks the completion of phase one of the woodland creation project at Damhead and the start of phase two. To date,300,000 trees have been planted with a further320,000 trees to be planted in the next eight weeks. These trees will sequester over 72,000 tonnes of carbon over their lifetime.

CatherineMaxwell Stuart said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been able to embark on the largest tree planting scheme that Traquair has carried out in the last 50 years. It is our goal to ensure the Traquair House Charitable Trust plays its part in the creation of a low carbon economy and secure a sustainable future for Traquair. These woodlands will be enjoyed by future generations as we are enjoying and maintaining woodlands planted by previous generations that make up so much of the character of this estate.”

Jeremy Thompson MD ofForest DirectLtd, said: “National Tree Week marks the start of the winter tree planting season. This season, at Damhead alone, we will be planting 320,000 trees including native broadleaves such as aspen, rowan, alder and birch,Scots pine (the national tree of Scotland) and Norway spruce. Helping Scotland take another step towards reaching the Scottish Governments net-zero target for 2045.”