Dozens of volunteers braved the onset of chilly weather to help plant more than a thousand trees in the heart of the Tamar Valley.

They turned out in force in Calstock, Albaston and St Ann’s Chapel to do something practical about climate change during National Tree Week.

The ’Forest for Calstock Parish’ is now taking root after a vigorous crowd-funding campaign among local residents. Three parish council sites on the edges of village playing fields have each been planted with hundreds of saplings to give nature a helping hand.

Chosen species include hawthorn, blackthorn, beech, honeysuckle, ivy, holly and hornbeam. The result will be good habitats for wildlife, and local people may even be able to graze there themselves since cherry and blackcurrant are among the trees and bushes chosen.

Although disrupted by covid during planning stages, the scheme had remarkable early success thanks to the determination of local people to fund it.

To get going at all, the Forest for Calstock had to raise £1,000 in order to unlock a promised grant of the same amount from the wider Forest for Cornwall scheme. In the end it took just a few days to reach that target through crowdfunding. So the fundraising simply motored on, and in the end about £3,500 was raised from at least 80 supporters.

On top of all this, a grant of £1,500 was won from the Tree Council to plant new hedges on different parts of the chosen sites.

Not bad work for a time when the economy was in utter turmoil thanks to the pandemic, and when on-site meetings to plan it all suddenly couldn’t take place. Planting that was originally meant for February this year was put back - as a result - to National Tree Week, which started on Saturday.

All manner of help was lined up for the planting itself, including local schoolchildren and teams of staff volunteers brought in by the LiveWest housing association. Local venues from pubs to churches made their toilets available in support of the planting effort.

The chair of Forest for Calstock, Alastair Tinto, said ’It’s an exciting moment, one that’s been a long time building. Covid meant months of delay but it was always clear that strong community support would see us through. With trees going in, it’s truly the start of something.’

Alison Knight Community Connector at LiveWest, said: ’LiveWest gives its colleagues up to four days paid volunteering a year. So, this was a great opportunity for some of them to get involved and provide extra support to this project.’

The project will also contribute to the Forest for Cornwall which aims to support residents in taking climate action to plant 8,000 hectares of new trees, hedges and woodland across Cornwall.

Councillor Martyn Alvey, Cornwall’s Cabinet member for environment and climate change, said: ’It is great to see residents take part in regular volunteer tree-planting days for this Calstock tree-planting project which we have supported and which will contribute to the Forest for Cornwall.

We are also grateful to staff at LiveWest for giving their time.’