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Chester Zoo plants 19,000 new trees to help restore Cheshire’s lost woodlands

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Emily Sergeant - 2nd October 2024

Chester Zoo is helping to restore lost woodland areas in Cheshire by planting tens of thousands of new trees.

In a bid to transform a low-biodiversity silage field into a major new sanctuary for UK wildlife, almost 19,000 trees have been planted on the Chester Zoo‘s land in Upton in Chester – which spans more than nine hectares – making it the zoo’s biggest habitat creation project to date, and one of the largest tree planting projects to take place in Cheshire in several years.

Forming part of a wider wildlife corridor across the North West region, a diverse mix of UK native broadleaf trees species have been planted – including oak, beech, and hazel.

The tree species have been chosen to provide “high biodiversity benefits” and a “resilience to climate change”, according to the zoo, while the layout has been designed to help butterflies, small mammals, and birds thrive.

We’ve planted a WHOLE woodland to help save UK Wildlife 🌳🐝

Planting 19,000 trees is seriously hard work! 😮‍💨 But this special place will be a thriving sanctuary for hundreds of species including bees, birds, badgers, foxes, harvest mice and a whole of variety of butterflies and… pic.twitter.com/SzVq7yqbYk

— Chester Zoo (@chesterzoo) October 1, 2024

Woodland once covered large areas of Cheshire, however, this has now significantly reduced from the county, largely due to several development projects, agricultural expansion, pollution, invasive species, and also disease.

Conservationists at the zoo are hoping the new woodland will provide a home for a variety of plants and animals, as well as help to improve soil health and carbon storage to combat climate change.

According to Chester Zoo, the location for this new tree-planting initiative has been specially selected to link with two smaller woods and form one continuous woodland, which will ultimately improve habitat connectivity for local wildlife, and increase resistance to pests and diseases too.

“Woodland cover in Cheshire is significantly lower than the national average, explained Dr Simon Dowell, who is the Director of Science and Policy at Chester Zoo, “that’s why it’s so important, and so exciting, to have created such a valuable new habitat here at the zoo.”

He continued: “Chester Zoo is widely known for its work to protect species in places right across the world, but it’s important that we look after nature on our doorstep too.

Read more:

• Chester Zoo named best zoo in the UK thanks to more than 11,000 ‘excellent’ ratings
• ‘Spectacular’ lights trail returns to Chester Zoo this winter
• Chester Zoo awarded £318k to improve nature recovery and local wildlife conservation

“Having already established a nature reserve at the zoo, the creation of this latest large-scale habitat will deliver benefits for wildlife for decades to come, making a vital contribution to reversing the decline in biodiversity we’re facing here in the UK.”

Featured Image – Chester Zoo