BiGDUG Ltd

The United Kingdom, is an island nation in Europe, whose woodlands and ancient forests have played a key role in its agricultural and industrial history. Despite previously being home to extensive ancient woodlands, has lost 109,000 hectares of forest between 2001 and 2021. The UK’s temperate climate is perfect for tree growth, and yet the UK has lower forest cover than the European average, at only 13% of the country’s total area. One of the particular challenges for the UK’s woodlands is habitat fragmentation, which creates further challenges for UK native wildlife.

We plant at over 30 differnet sites in the UK, with each project designed with the unique environmental conditions of each site in mind - including soil acidity, soil texture, moisture content, topography, land history and statutory environmental constraints. We aim to restore parts of native woodland and ancient hedgerows by planting a diversity of tree species across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. With the support of forestry experts, we've analysed the areas that need assistance the most.

We thoroughly monitor the trees post-planting and work closely with the local communities and landowners to ensure the success of our project. The trees that we plant will help to create new wildlife habitats, especially such bird species as Lapwing, Grey Partridge, Tree Sparrow, and Yellow Wagtail. Our sites also support other ecological benefits, including restoring mosaic habitats as part of rewilding projects across the UK.

Additionally, we strive to increase social impact through all of our tree planting projects. We plant on a number of sites where the tree planting is integrated into their curriculums, where children and young people will ascertain both practical conservation skills through the projects, as well as a wider education in climate change and the value of nature. Our planting is done on many publicly-accessible sites, where we are able to enrich the experience of those nearby, providing wellbeing ecosystem services to each project.