County Durham will be home to England’s largest contiguous commercial forest to be planted since the 1980s after the Forestry Commission granted consent to True North Real Asset Partners’ Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund II to plant a 290-hectare forest on the Greencroft Estate in Lanchester.
Greencroft Forest Park will house a mixed productive forest comprising 31 different species and 600,000 individual trees on a site roughly equivalent in size to 185 football pitches. Tree planting will begin in winter 2025, with site preparation starting in the summer.
The Greencroft Forest will deliver major social, environmental and ecological benefits, as well as a significant economic impact on the local economy. It will boost business for the forestry and timber industries and provide locally-sourced and sustainable timber for construction and other sectors*.
70,500 tonnes of carbon will be sequestered (captured from the atmosphere), and the forest planting will help mitigate the risk of flooding in the local area by reducing river levels by up to 10%. 37 acres of wet woodland, a declining priority habitat, will be planted around the flood-prone areas of Newhouse and Smallhope Burns in Lanchester.
Biodiversity gains will also result from the forest creation with new habitats formed for local wildlife from insects to larger mammals and improvements to soil health, water quality and air purity.
To create a diverse, productive forest, broadleaf and spruce will be planted. Oak will form the largest percentage of native/naturalised broadleaves, along with birch, willow, hornbeam and others, all planted for their biodiversity gains and future timber use. Sitka spruce, Scots pine and yew will be among the conifer varieties. Sitka spruce will make up the largest single species in the new forest; Sitka captures large amounts of carbon from its first day in the ground.
Juniper Forestry, forestry experts from Chopwell, have been contracted to manage planting and forestry on the site. Specialist teams will begin planting saplings individually by hand in November. The forest will be tended and managed, with the first timber yield expected in 2045 and a total of 110,000 tonnes of sustainable homegrown timber produced in the first rotation.
Extensive archaeological surveys undertaken for the project have shown the true route of the Dere Street Roman Road through the Lanchester valley. Public access to this route will be protected with information boards installed. The Roman road will also be treated as a historic monument, with planting designed to integrate the road sympathetically into the landscape. Walkways will be created between the trees, giving buggy-compliant access to the forest and making a connection across the Lanchester Valley with the county’s wider network of cycle paths.
A programme of community and educational engagement, including forest schools, nature walks, and other educational and training activities, is planned to encourage schools, colleges and the wider public to visit and enjoy the clean, green forest.
Harry Humble, Chief Executive of True North, the largest afforestation investor in the UK, said:
“We are delighted that consent has been granted for the Greencroft Forest Park. It is a historic moment for the county. We have invested heavily in understanding the ecology and heritage of the estate and canvassing local opinion. All of this informs the final design that has now been approved.
“We are looking forward to getting the forest planted and delivering something that our neighbours in Lanchester and Annfield Plain can enjoy for decades to come. The massive amount of carbon captured by this project is not being sold for credits, the project is built on its value as a source of commercial timber to help decarbonise the future of the building industry. The project will also greatly enhance public access to the new Greencroft Forest.
“This has been a complex development, and it is reassuring to see the largest commercial afforestation project in England for decades handled so efficiently by the Forestry Commission.”
Giving his congratulations and backing to the Greencroft Forest, David Leslie, chairman of timber company, James Jones & Sons, highlighted how timely and topical the consent has been. He said:
“This is fantastic news for Durham and the North East, which is receiving a unique amount of investment in the primary wood processing sector. New productive forests, such as Greencroft, give confidence to companies like ours and reinforce our decision to locate the UK’s most state-of-the-art sawmill in Durham. With the UK Government now committed to the Timber in Construction roadmap, which makes increasing the sustainable supply of homegrown timber a priority, we hope to see more projects like Greencroft being approved.”