The Forestry Commission has given the official go-ahead for planting to begin at the new Heartwood Forest site in Hertfordshire. 650,000 new trees will be planted at the 850 acre site North of St Albans, which already contains some ancient woodland but is mostly arable farmland. The whole site was purchased recently by the Woodland Trust, with a plan to turn into a mix of forest, meadows and an orchard.

I must say I thought that they'd already begun the planting as their publicity from a year ago suggested so, but presumably they'd actually been waiting for this rubber stamp. Having walked around the site I didn't see any evidence of new planting, so it will be interesting to see that kick into action. The picture above shows some of the existing woodland.