As part of a two-year project costing a whopping £1m, Manchester is set to get thousands more trees – with new street trees, park ‘beacon’ trees, hedges, orchids and even potentially new community woodlands being planted throughout 2021.
The project, which is called Tree Action Mcr, aims to make every ward in the city a little bit leafier – focussing on the areas that have less trees than others to begin with. The first phase of the project will begin in Ancoats and Beswick, Ardwick, Cheetham, Clayton and Openshaw, Gorton and Abbey Hey, Miles Platting and Newton Heath, Moss Side, Old Moat, Withington and Woodhouse Park.
Beginning last December, the fantastic initiative has seen hundreds of trees planted already, with thousands more set to be planted over the coming year in 2022.
The project aims to bring the many benefits having ample trees provides us, including improved air quality, reduce flood risk and counter the effects of climate change by absorbing and storing carbon.
Councillor Angeliki Stogia, Executive Member for Environment and Planning, said: “Tree Action will be the most ambitious and focused tree-planting scheme Manchester has ever seen.
“The new trees all around the city will be a visible demonstration of our deep-rooted commitment to greening the city and Manchester becoming zero carbon by 2038 at the latest. While as a Council we are investing in initiatives such as electric bin lorries and retrofitting buildings to make them more energy-efficient as part of our carbon reduction plans, we shouldn’t lose sight of the benefits which more natural solutions can have too.
“Quite simply having more trees is good for our communities, good for our city and good for our planet.
“We’ll be sharing more details about how Manchester people can get involved as the scheme progresses.”