BBC News | ENGLAND | Dartmoor woodland branches out

A new woodland is being planted on Dartmoor to mark its 50th anniversary as a national park.

Local schools and the public are being asked to help create the 11-acre expanse.

The new woodland is one of a range of celebrations to mark the Devon park's half-century.

Pupils from 12 local schools will carry out much of the planting of 7,500 native trees at Eastpark Copse, in the Wray Valley, near Lustleigh.

Hundreds of children will help to plant the trees

But Dartmoor National Park Authority also wants people from across the region to take part.

Volunteers can join in on 30 November and 1 and 2 December.

The planting will coincide with National Tree Week, which runs from 21 November to 2 December.

The week is organised annually by the Tree Council at the beginning of each tree planting season.

This year it aims to increase the involvement of young people in activities like tree planting.

There are already more than 1,100 acres of forest on Dartmoor.

The new acreage will be adjacent to areas of ancient woodland.

Establishing new trees next to old is more beneficial to the environment than planting them in isolation, according to the Forestry Commission.


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