Schoolchildren helping to plant trees in Rotherham

Rotherham Borough Council's Green Spaces team will be working with the South Yorkshire Forest Partnership to plant a small copse of trees at Barnsley Road Recreation Ground, Thorpe Hesley, on Tuesday March 22 from 10am, until dinner time, assisted by green-fingered pupils from Abbey School.

The planting with then be completed by another group from the school on Thursday March 24.

The trees will all be native species and provide attractive new landscape feature as well as a new habitat.

This new project is supported the South Yorkshire Forest's community tree-planting scheme "Gifts that Grow".

Tree sponsorship, which supported this project, helps to purchase a tree and ensure that it is nursed during the first four years of its life to give it a good chance of surviving in the long term.

The trees planted are all native to the area, and species are chosen according to the needs and conditions of the site. Usually there will be a mix that may include rowan, oak, silver birch, hazel and alder, each contributing its unique qualities to the biodiversity of the new wooded area.

Development Officer, Jim Staveley, commented: "This is a fantastic opportunity to make a small corner of the town greener.

"The children of Abbey School are excited about being part of the project. They have fantastic school grounds and now the green fingers pupils are helping to improve another site that everyone can enjoy.

"Hopefully this project will continue to flourish and we can have new trees sprouting up and even more locations."