THE landscape around Broughton is changing forever with a huge tree planing scheme to create a vast forest is nearing the end of its first phase.

An area of Broughton Hall Estate, has become home to the largest tree planting scheme in England this year. Working in partnership with the White Rose Forest, the community forest for West and North Yorkshire, 160 hectares of trees (396 acres) will have been planted between December and April 2021, the equivalent of 224 football pitches. Around 250,000 trees have been planted so far.

The Broughton Sanctuary Nature Recovery Programme is being overseen by Broughton Hall Estate owner Roger Tempest alongside his partner, Paris Ackrill, co-founder of Avalon Wellbeing at The Broughton Sanctuary and will eventually return a third of the estate's land back to nature.

The 're-wilding' project will also help reduce water run-off water into local rivers and help protect communities in the Aire river valley, from Skipton down to Leeds City Centre, from the risk of future floods. The project is therefore also strategically important within the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme.

Mr Tempest said: "We surely have to wake up to the fact that respecting and supporting nature has to be a high priority on the ground now.

"Our lack of harmonious co-existence with the Earth is causing continued extinction of species across the globe as well as a deep lack of belonging for humanity.

"We are too often looking further afield to environmental degradation 'over there' yet we have lost our places of real wilderness in Britain, wilderness which should pulse with rich biodiversity. We saw an opportunity at home.

"We believe that the change we need to see will come through the union of rewilding our ‘outer nature’, such as the nature recovery and rewilding project at Broughton, along with the rewilding of our ‘inner nature’ which perhaps has been the root cause of deforestation and degradation of nature in England.

Natural species of tree have been chosen including:sessile and pedunculate oaks, alder and aspen, white and goat willow, silver birch, hazel, bird cherry, field maple and rowan. Scrub species include hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and elder.

Species have been chosen to meet the objectives for biodiversity, to be native and offer maximum resilience to climate change.The project is funded by the Government’s Nature For Climate fund via Trees for Climate, a £12.1m programme of woodland creation this planting season led by England’s Community Forests. Once established, the woodland will also store significant quantities of carbon and help deliver the Government’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the UK by 2050.

For Broughton Sanctuary, the tree planting marks the beginning of an ambitious nature recovery programme that will transform a third of this 1200-hectare estate to a much wilder state and increase biodiversity and wildlife. As well as tree planting, early interventions to kickstart the recovery process will include the natural regeneration of trees, scrub and grasslands, the creation and restoration of wetland habitats and sensitive woodland management.

Mr Tempest added: "“We are enormously grateful to everyone that has been involved in our nature recovery project so far. The expert advice and ongoing support we receive from Professor Alastair Driver, Matt Taylor, Wayne Scurrah and Richard Preston Garden Design is invaluable. A huge thank you also to the White Rose Forest, Defra, Kirklees Council, Craven District Council and the Environment Agency.”

The successful delivery of this project during a particularly challenging planting season has been achieved through close collaboration between Broughton Sanctuary, the White Rose Forest delivery team and the Forestry Commission, who has ensured that the planting was designed to meet UK Forestry Standards.

The new woodland forms part of the White Rose Forest’s Landscapes for Water planting programme that aims to reduce flood risk for urban areas situated close to major rivers and waterways in North and West Yorkshire, whilst also improving local water quality, biodiversity and recreation opportunities for local communities.

Guy Thompson, programme director for the White Rose Forest, said: “The White Rose Forest partnership is proud to support Broughton Sanctuary to deliver this hugely important project that will help protect our environment and local communities along the River Aire.

“Broughton Sanctuary joins local authorities across Yorkshire in the leadership they have shown in responding to the climate emergency. Thanks to the support we have received from the Government and businesses, the White Rose Forest has never been in a better position to support this response by working with landowners across the region to plant trees and deliver the essential long-term environmental and community benefits they can bring.”

Forestry Minister, Lord Goldsmith, said, “We are committed to tree-planting and natural regeneration on an unprecedented scale, The rewilding of Broughton Sanctuary is a fantastic example of this."