A message from our Chair of Trustees:
You will probably know that it is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, marking her remarkable 70-year reign as our Sovereign. You will probably also know that Her Majesty is a great supporter of re-forestation and other “greening” measures across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, as well as worldwide.
The Queen’s Green Canopy Project (QGC) was launched on 17th May with the dual aims of thanking Her Majesty the Queen for her exceptional service as Monarch, and of celebrating Her Platinum Jubilee next year. The project aims to promote the importance of trees to the environment through the encouragement of tree planting and tree preservation across the nation.
This will be an inclusive and far-reaching initiative, and will offer a chance for people of all backgrounds and faiths within local communities, charities, schools, youth groups, councils, and every kind of organisation, as well as individuals and landowners both large and small, to unite in celebration of The Queen’s lifetime of service through “greening” their own localities. The public’s awareness of the need for this “greening”, as well as its enthusiasm for it, have been sharply highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Led by an Executive Team nationally, and supported by the charity Cool Earth and the UK Government, the project will invite every county across UK to encourage numerous single or multiple plantings, using either specimen species or healthy native ones. It is hoped to create an extensive network of trees, tree avenues, copses, and woodlands. As well as inviting people to plant new trees, owners of existing woodland will also be encouraged to preserve forests for the future, and in The Queen’s name.
Each project dedicated to the QGC can be marked by a special commemorative plaque (a template will be available on the website- www.queensgreencanopy.org) and will be uploaded onto a map of the UK to track all these initiatives over the duration of the project. The Queen will receive the map of the entirety of projects planted and pledged in Her Majesty’s name as a gift from the Nation.
The QGC is designed to run from now, through the planting season between October 2021 and March 2022, and up to the formal Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022 and beyond them to the end of 2022.
The goal is to plant many trees, and to plant them well. The emphasis will be on quality, not quantity.
I encourage all Merseyside Scout Groups and District with available sites to apply for and plant a free tree or trees as part of this great initiative.
You can apply to the Woodland Trust via the Queen’s Green Canopy website.
The closing date for applications for trees is the 25th August 2021 and they are being awarded on a first come first served basis. Merseyside Scouts have already applied for and been granted 420 trees for planting at our Tawd Vale Adventure Centre.
I would like to be informed by email of every application for a tree or trees because a register is being kept by the Merseyside Lieutenancy which in turn will assist in the preparation of the electronic map of plantings.
David Steer QC DL
Chair of the Board of Trustees of Merseyside Scouts
