The Derwent Living Forest is an ambitious nature restoration programme across the Derbyshire Derwent catchment. The Derwent Living Forest will not only provide an extensive haven of quality habitat for wildlife but will also offer further ecosystem services such as natural flood management benefits and increased carbon sequestration to assist in adapting to and reducing the impacts of climate change

The main aim of the programme is to create 30,000 hectares of wooded habitat. This includes, but is not limited to,  woodlands, hedgerows, orchards, parkland trees, agri-forestry, and trees in gardens and wetlands.  To achieve this, we are working with community groups, landowners and councils, as well as in education settings, to both help them participate in the project and help them manage their land positively for nature.

Recently, we delivered a large tree planting project in Litton in the Peak District, partnering with the landowner to help bring more trees to their land. We could not have achieved this without the help of a group of students from Sheffield Hallam who helped plant nearly 1000 trees! This was organised with student Flinn Jones and the staff at Sheffield Hallam.

Flinn is a first-year student studying Climate, sustainability and environmental management and had this to say about the project and the day.

“I first thought of getting me and my fellow students into the project when we learnt about rewilding in one of our lectures. Having a good connection with the wilder community officer on the Derwent living forest project (George Jones), who happens to be my brother, we arranged a meeting with two members of the Sheffield Hallam team, we set a date and arranged the day. Which instantly had loads of interest from students. Which I think shows how younger people are showing more and more interest in the future of our natural spaces and how protecting them will better our future.”

We split the trees into different amounts for each field, depending on the size. With it being on a hillside, we definitely got our steps in, but it was an amazing experience that was a very hands-on way of putting what we learned at Uni into practice. With smiles all round, everyone involved has asked me when the next opportunity will be.

We are currently organising more tree planting days between the Trust and the University, and look forward to continuing this partnership heading into the future.

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A big thank you to Sheffield Hallam University staff and students for helping with the delivery of this project and to Flinn for helping to organise it.

DWT’s Derwent Living Forest programme helps landowners and communities source and fund trees for wooded habitat creation, which supports our vision to create a more connected living forest across Derbyshire’s Derwent catchment. We can support from project inception through to the planting day.

Get in touch to find out more by emailing us at dlf@derbyshirewt.co.uk or read more about it here - Derwent Living Forest