Seven areas of South Holland will become greener places to be thanks to a new tree planting scheme for 2013.
Lincolnshire County Council is hoping to plant 33,000 new trees across the county during the year – an increase of 7,500 on last year’s total – as part of its Hedge and Small Woodland Grant scheme.
They will be funded through 34 grants and will result in 7.8km of new hedges being planted and 1.8 hectares of new woodlands.
Executive councillor Eddy Poll said: “I am really pleased with this year’s scheme.
“It is a huge number of new trees and hedges which will make a significant and noticeable improvement to our landscape and wildlife, as the scheme has already done for a number of years.”
Grants are being awarded all across Lincolnshire, with the seven in South Holland including one near Donington, one near Pinchbeck, and five around the Holbeach and Long Sutton areas.
Matthew Davey, the county council’s environment and community project officer, said: “We make sure that all the trees and shrubs are characteristic or native to Lincolnshire and therefore will support a range of insects, mammals and birds.”
* Lincolnshire County Council’s Hedge and Small Woodland Grant Scheme aims to address the dramatic decline of hedgerows suffered in the UKsince 1945.
It is believed that between 1984 and 1990, more than a quarter of the nations hedges were lost.
By comparing aerial photographs of Lincolnshire taken in 1971/2 and 1993/4, it is believed that some areas of the county have lost more than 100m/square km of hedge – up to a quarter of the total length in that time.