In Scotland’s mighty Cairngorm mountains, trees are appearing in unexpected places. On steep, heathery hillsides, on rocky outcrops and glen floors – wherever they find a toehold. In places such as the Mar Lodge Estate, Scots pine, birch, aspen and alder are popping up.
Three hundred miles to the south in the English Midlands, trees have also appeared on what was once open land. Mining sites, clay pits, quarries and other spaces – an area almost twice the size of the city of Birmingham – are now cloaked in young trees. The numbers are astonishing: nine million new trees across 200 square miles, each planted by hand. This is the National Forest, which straddles the post-industrial landscape at the junction of Staffordshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
The Cairngorm projects and the National Forest are part of efforts to expand the UK’s woodlands. Trees play an important role in battling climate change by absorbing carbon – thus reducing carbon dioxide, one of the world’s most dangerous and prevalent greenhouse gases. Woodlands also boost the country’s
