Every home in Wales to be given free tree in new climate initiative

The trees will be available from March 2022

A child and their father planting a tree (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Every household in Wales will be offered a free tree to plant in a new initiative aimed at helping the country reach net zero by 2030.

In an announcement on Monday 6 December, deputy climate change minister Lee Waters said that if the offer is taken up by every household, there could be more than one million trees planted.

Those without gardens will have the opportunity to have the tree planted on their behalf by The Woodland Trust.

“To tackle climate change, governments need to make the right thing to do the easiest thing to do,” Waters said in the announcement.

“Trees are amazing things, and we don’t say it enough. As well as helping to tackle climate change, they also help clean the local air, and help deal with flooding by slowing down flow of water.”

The project is set to launch in 2022, with trees available at five hubs from March and a further 20 by autumn.

Jerry Langford from The Woodland Trust in Wales told the BBC he is confident the public will be able to care for trees in their gardens,

“Trees are tough actually. You’ve got to treat them pretty badly to kill a tree. So just a bit of tender loving care, and it will be fine,” he said.

“They need a supply of water and they need to make sure they don’t get swamped by competing vegetation.”

The news comes after Waters led a so-called “deep dive” into trees and timber earlier this year, which aimed to identify ways to increase tree planting and woodland creation in the country.

In a statement issued in July, Waters said Wales needs to plant 43,000 hectares of new woodland by 2030, and 180,000 hectares by 2050 to meet its climate targets.

“Last year, just 290 hectares of woodland was planted in Wales and annual woodland creation has not exceeded 2,000 hectares since 1975,” he said.

He also called for an overhaul of the construction sector, which currently imports 80 per cent of the timber it uses.

“There is real opportunity for timber processors and manufacturers in Wales to contribute to a ‘wood economy’ in Wales, creating new jobs in rural Wales as well as building an innovative supply chain for high value added, longer life uses,” he said.