THE Woodland Trust needs landowners in the South West to help create an exclusive 'Diamond Wood' for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. 

The hunt is on for 60 prestigious woodland sites of 60 acres or above which would become the vanguard sites in one of the most ambitious programmes ever undertaken by the trust. The aim is to plant six-million trees across the UK and involve millions of people in tree planting to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne.

At 9.9% Devon is below the 13% national average for woodland cover. The trust is offering South West landowners who might have potential sites for new woodland the unique opportunity to be at the heart of the Queen's 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations and is urging them to contact the organisation.

The sites can be of varying sizes from very special 60 acre Diamond Woods to Jubilee Woods of anything over one acre, to smaller community woodlands or copses.

Each successful applicant can call on a bespoke support package from the trust, with grant funding advice and specialist help with design and tree species.

So far the charity has 31 Diamond Wood sites confirmed, this equates to almost 1.2 million native trees being planted. There are sites planned across the UK for varying reasons and environmental benefits including inner city biodiversity, wildlife corridors and educational facilities.

Georgina McLeod, project head at the Woodland Trust, said: 'This is a unique chance, and with only 29 opportunities left to create a prestigious Diamond Wood we are encouraging anyone interested to contact us as soon as possible.

'We are absolutely delighted that The Princess Royal has chosen to be patron of Jubilee Woods. We very much hope that landowners in Devon will want to join us in paying a very special tribute to the Queen, while at the same time creating a living legacy to hand on to future generations.'

As well as 60 Diamond Woods hundreds of smaller 'Jubilee Woods' will also be created, and thousands of community, school and individual plantings across the country will take place from autumn 2011 until the close of 2012, involving a planned ten per cent of the population.

Jubilee Woods is part of the Trust's 'More Trees, More Good' campaign, launched in 2010, which aims to double native woodland cover in this country — already one of the lowest in Europe — over the next 50 years.

The trust now offers a range of mechanisms to inspire and enable large organisations, schools, community groups and individuals to plant trees on their own land.

l For more details call Michelle Byrne on 08452 935802, email her on [email protected]">[email protected] or visit http://www.jubileewoods.org.uk">www.jubileewoods.org.uk