As the seasons change and the days become shorter, we approach the time of year when our Parks Services Team will be preparing to plant trees and woodlands across the Borough. The team will be working closely with our communities and volunteers to continue to plant the right trees in the right places.

During the 2022 to 2023 season, a total of 10,296 trees were planted with support from Parks Services, Neighbourhood Services, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Twiggs, and volunteers. A total of 1,730 volunteer hours were recorded with the help of corporate volunteers, community groups, and schools.

In the 2021-2022 season, a total of 7,283 trees were planted in the first year of the project.

Our planting highlights:

• In October 2022, Barnsley was chosen to receive a special tree from the living sculpture 'Tree of Trees' which stood tall outside Buckingham Palace, as a message of hope, regeneration and optimism to the nation and the world as part of the Platinum Jubilee weekend celebrations. This Hazel tree was planted in Locke Park as a living tribute to Her Late Majesty's 70^th Year Reign.
• To celebrate us planting 10,000 trees across our borough, our Mayor planted a tree in Locke Park alongside children from Joseph Locke Primary School.
• Throughout the year we’ve been working with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and South Yorkshire Woodland Partnership to develop woodland creation sites. 498 trees were planted at Netherwood Country Park, 1,577 trees were planted at Jump Valley Community Woodland and 1,675 trees were planted on Swanee Fields.
• A school engagement offer was developed in partnership with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to engage children with nature and develop accessible planting plans on their land that the school could take responsibility for and nurture.
• South Yorkshire Woodland Partnership was established to remove barriers to woodland creation in the county. Our ambition is to create well-designed resilient woodland that provides multiple benefits to people, wildlife, and the environment.
• We’ve been working with ‘Tree-conomics’ to carry out and a composition analysis of our tree canopy. The results of this study will enable us to make strategic plans for the future of its trees, often referred to as the ‘urban forest’.
• As part of the Queens Green Canopy, we planted 110 trees with 24 schools and 7 community groups.

We committed to planting 10,000 trees by 2023. Now that we have surpassed this target, we will continue our important tree planting work under a new name, the Branching out Barnsley project. This project is part of our ongoing work to protect and enhance Barnsley’s beautiful borough and the reduction of net carbon emissions through tree planting.

Cllr James Higginbottom, Cabinet Spokesperson for Environment and Highways said: I’m proud to see that we have excelled our tree planting targets with thanks to our Parks Team, partners, schools, and community groups across the borough.

“Planting trees is part of our ongoing ambition to protect our beautiful green spaces and create a cleaner, greener, more sustainable Barnsley.

“By planting trees, we are helping to enhance our green spaces, developing habitats for wildlife as well as driving our borough towards becoming Net Zero by 2045.”

Find out more about tree planting on our website. 
If you'd like to get involved in planting a tree, please email parksservices@barnsley.gov.uk.