Our Promise For Nature: Planting Trees With The National Trust

In partnership with the National Trust and in support of their Woodlands appeal, we pledged to donate a percentage of our sales to help plant trees and keep our air clean for everyone to enjoy. With your help during Black Friday and through the sale of our National Trust Woodlands Appeal pin badges in 2019, we raised enough money to plant 10,000 trees and help protect woodlands for years to come. But, just donating the money wasn’t enough; we wanted to plant our trees, too.

“Cotswold Outdoor is all about getting people outside and enjoying the environment, so this is a great opportunity for us to help make a real difference by working with the National Trust. We’re absolutely delighted to be one of the first partners to commit to our promise and help to support the Woodlands Appeal.”  - Steve Hulbert, Partnerships Manager

We joined National Trust rangers and volunteers at Woolacombe Down in Devon, one of the many places being planted as part of the appeal, for a full day of learning all about the impact of National Trust conservation projects - in particular, tree planting - and how the Woodlands Appeal is helping to combat climate change and create homes for nature and wildlife around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As part of the appeal, the National Trust plans to plant a total of 125,000 trees along the North Devon coast, and over the course of the day we managed to plant almost 1000 oak trees. The rest will be planted in other locations along the coast, with trees chosen specifically to complement the soil, survive coastal weather conditions and offer diverse habitats for birds, insects and mammals to set up home. 

Here’s what National Trust Ranger Josh, who led the planting day, had to say:

“We’re planting trees on Woolacombe Down for the benefit of nature. Nature has declined massively since the 1960s, and woodlands are an aspect of the landscape around Woolacombe and North Devon that’s very much missing, so we’re trying to reintroduce that and make space for nature. It also has a huge benefit to the environment; climate change is a big thing on the agenda at the moment, so planting trees helps to absorb and cycle carbon, which makes for a healthier environment for all of us."

“It’s fantastic to have partners like Cotswold Outdoor supporting tree planting and the work that we do. We’ve chosen trees that complement that site that we have, the soil that we have, where water courses are running and are used to being exposed to the weather. We’re planting a whole variety of trees so it’s nice and diverse and makes plenty of space for different species.” - Josh, National Trust Ranger

The Woodlands appeal is all about protecting the trees which protect us by turning carbon dioxide into oxygen and keeping our air clean. A single tree can remove a tonne of carbon from our air over its lifetime, so what better way to help preserve the great outdoors for generations to come than by protecting and planting trees?

Our 10,000 trees could help to remove and recycle up to 10,000 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere over the next 40+ years! We couldn’t have done it without you, so we want to say a big thank you to all our customers who helped contribute to our promise.

You can find out more about the Woodlands appeal on the National Trust website: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/appeal/woodlands-appeal