Queen's Platinum Jubilee: Sussex tree-planting target in sight if we keep up the momentum

The campaign is both a tribute to Her Majesty’s 70 years of service and also a celebration of the pivotal role that trees play in carbon capture and the move towards a greener, more sustainable planet.

Dr John Godfrey, who has held a number of significant roles in public life in the county and is a Deputy Lieutenant, supporting the Lord-Lieutenant in her role as The Queen’s representative in the county, was invited to take on the task of overseeing the QGC campaign.

John assembled a small group of colleagues with backgrounds in land management, education, community work and media relations, and the West Sussex campaign was launched at the South of England Showground at Ardingly in October last year.

There followed six months of intense activity, as landowners, farmers, nature conservation bodies, schools, parish councils and community groups became involved and started planting individual trees, hedges, woodlands and even forests.

The Lieutenancy was represented at many planting ceremonies across West Sussex and John’s eldest grandson, Ollie, in his last year at Dorset House School, Bury, helped to plant trees at Wild Heart Hill, Findon, and for the National Trust at Slindon.

By March 31, the end of the first planting season of the campaign, a staggering total of more than 40,000 trees had been planted in West Sussex.

Led by the mayor and the town council, Arundel has been particularly active in the campaign, with trees planted in the Jubilee Gardens and the Pollinators’ Garden in Mill Road, and a tree nursery established at ACE school.

There are plans for further plantings in the autumn.

In addition, Ebernoe Common local nature reserve, near Petworth, owned by the Sussex Wildlife Trust, has been recognised as one of 70 ancient woodlands of national importance and the 16th-century hawthorn at Tilgate, Crawley and the Queen Elizabeth I sessile oak at Cowdray Park, Midhurst have been recognised nationally as two of the 70 ancient trees.

John’s team is now regrouping, in preparation for the second, and final, planting season of the campaign, from October 1 to December 31.

In the meantime, it is essential that the trees that have been planted are cared for, particularly when the weather is dry.

John is increasingly confident that his group’s target of 70,000 trees, 1,000 for each year of The Queen’s reign, will be met, but this will happen only if the present level of enthusiasm and activity is maintained.

He said: “West Sussex is one of the most wooded counties in England, and the response here to the QGC campaign should enable us to retain our leading position”.