South West Water celebrates 100,000 trees landmark

01st June 2021

Back in 2019, South West Water announced ambitious plans to plant at least 100,000 trees by 2030.

Today, ahead of World Environment Day on 5 June, the company is announcing it has already smashed that target nearly a decade early by planting a total of 100,860 trees. It now aims to plant 250,000 trees by 2025.

South West Water has been working with key partners to plant trees on land identified by partners such as the Wildlife Trusts as well as its own property. The Woodland Trust has provided thousands of native trees ready to be planted. 

South West Water’s Head of Environment, Perry Hobbs, said: “This first year has been about developing the ways we can work with landowners and delivery partners such as Devon and Cornwall Wildlife Trusts, North Devon Biosphere Foundation, South West Lakes Trust, the Environment Agency and Westcountry Rivers Trust.

“We completed most of this tree planting this year through our Upstream Thinking programme and in the Umber Catchment as parts of our bathing water improvement works.

“Trees bring both environmental and wellbeing benefits. They help combat climate change, improve water quality, reduce flooding, enhance biodiversity and add to the natural beauty of our region.

“We take our commitment both to the planet and to the local environment very seriously, and I personally look forward to seeing more trees in the South West of England in the years ahead.”

This spring, South West Water planted 3,900 sessile or western oak (Quercus petraea) at Stannon Lake, a post mining restoration site on Bodmin Moor. These trees will stabilise the site and encourage wildlife and provide important habitat alongside the recovering heath and mire.

The company plans to restore woodlands on South West Water-owned land and plant many more trees in the context of catchment management and natural flood management projects.

The initiative supports South West Water’s ambitions for ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2030.