Trees for Cities, Great Yarmouth

Greyfriars Project Management is managing the Trees for Cities project on behalf of Great Yarmouth Borough Council to plant over 500 trees to support green jobs and provide a boost for nature recovery.

The urban tree planting is being delivered as part of the Forgotten Places: Greening Coastal Towns and Cities initiative which is funded through the Green Recovery Challenge Fund.

The project aims to expand tree canopy cover to increase resilience against the effects of climate change, and supports local greening and biodiversity strategies in response to the climate crisis.

Planting began in January 2022 and will be completed by spring 2023.

In addition to enhancing green spaces and improving air quality, local residents, especially young people, can participate in a variety of opportunities to build their environmental knowledge and learn tree-related skills that are relevant towards the green sector, for example learning how to plant urban trees and attending training courses to identify, care for and protect trees where they live. The project will also support three newly developed full time green jobs or traineeships such as tree-planting coordinators, ecologists or horticultural officers.

Planting trees has been found to have a positive impact on people and the environment. The project will help to tackle green inequality by increasing the people’s opportunity to benefit from urban trees in Great Yarmouth.

The project is also part of The Queen’s Green Canopy, a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Local residents will be invited to get involved and “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee”.

The funding forms part of the Government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund and was developed by Defra and its arm’s-length bodies. The fund is being delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England, the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission.