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Start making room now. Whether you’ve got space for a towering oak tree or just a tiny shrub, if you live in Wales, you’ll soon be offered a free tree for your garden. That means your outdoor space is going to get a tiny bit greener – and at no cost to you at all.
In 2022, citizens can collect their free tree from one of 20 hubs, and the idea is they can then be taken home to be planted wherever you like. The Welsh government has announced the scheme as part of its ambitious plan to tackle climate change. Not only will the trees create new habitats for wildlife, mitigate flooding and help clean the air, but it’s also hoped they will also help raise awareness of simple ways people can fight the crisis at home.
More broadly, Wales is aiming to to plant around 43,000 hectares of woodland by 2030 in order to reach its environmental targets. In 2020, only 290 hectares were planted, so they’ve got a long way to go yet.
The new tree-planting scheme should help with that, however, and so too will a brand-new ‘national forest’. A consultation on that will open in the new year, about which you can find out more here. Until then, we’ll say this much: why can’t more governments do what the Welsh are doing?
Feeling inspired? Now read about 21 amazing things cities are doing to the fight the climate crisis.