23 October 2007
Local children go wild to plant trees
Barry kids get chance to meet local author Richard Berry, as they plant their own trees to celebrate the Big Wild Read Summer Reading Challenge
During the summer children across Wales have been busy earning ‘tree tokens’ by taking part in the Big Wild Read through their local libraries. Each book they read has earned a tree token which goes towards the planting of 20,000 trees in woods across the UK this autumn.
In Barry, however, children from Holton Road Primary School got the chance to plant trees for themselves as part of the Big Wild Read. They did this at Porthkerry Country Park where the Woodland Trust (Coed Cadw) has teamed up with the Vale of Glamorgan Council, which owns the land, to plant 16,400 trees with 2,500 children to create 37 acres (15 hectares) of new native woodland.
Run by the Reading Agency, the Summer Reading Challenge encourages children throughout the UK to get reading. This year’s challenge, the Big Wild Read, is supporting the Woodland Trust’s Tree For All campaign, the largest ever children’s tree-planting initiative in the UK, with a target to plant 12 million trees.
“A record number of children took the Big Wild Read challenge to ‘change your world’ and have been inspired to really make a difference to their environment, not least by helping to plant trees”, says Lynne Taylor of the Reading Agency.
The Big Wild Read links to BBC’s ‘Breathing Places’ environment initiative www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces which is encouraging people to engage with nature. It's part of public libraries' new partnership with BBC Vision Learning, led by the Reading Agency.
Meriel Robson of the Woodland Trust, adds: “We’re delighted to give children the chance to plant trees through Tree For All and the Big Wild Read, and pleased that Porthkerry has been chosen as one of the associated woods. Many children have enjoyed the challenge over the summer; now it’s our chance to inspire some of them further by involving them in planting trees.”
Vale of Glamorgan Council cabinet member for tourism and leisure Cllr Gwyn John welcomed the involvement of children and young people in the development of the community woodland project at Porthkerry. "Our young people are the future guardians of the environment and I am keen to see their active participation in such innovative schemes."
For media enquiries contact:
Rory Francis (Publicity and Public Affairs Officer for Wales) on 01766 832563 or 07760 171174 Afallon, Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd LL41 3RH Email roryfrancis@woodland-trust.org.uk
Or The Woodland Trust Press Office email media@woodland-trust.org.uk or Tel 01476 581121
Andrea Reece at The Reading Agency on 020 8889 1292 or email: andrea.reece@zen.co.uk
Editor’s Notes
Richard Berry
Founder member of Hijinx Theatre, Cardiff, and South Glamorgan’s Theatre in Education team. Richard came to storytelling and writing through devised theatre work, especially for children and adults with learning difficulties, having also shared the care and upbringing of his two children. Richard is the driving force behind Cardiff Storytelling Circle and regular host of the popular People’s Palace Ceilidh sessions at Beyond The Border.
Selected Publications:
Cyfres Darganfod: Rhyfel ac Arfau (Dref Wen, 1980)
Branwen (UWIC, 2002)
Tower by the Sea (UWIC, 2002)
The Squeeking Beauty (Hijinx, 2005)
The Ozard Of Wiz (Hijinx, 2006)
More detail available on the Academi website
Coed Cadw (The Woodland Trust)
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 250,000 members and supporters. The Trust has four key aims: i) No further loss of ancient woodland; ii) Restoring and improving the biodiversity of woods; iii) Increasing new native woodland; iv) Increasing people’s awareness and enjoyment of woodland.
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). These include over 100 sites in Wales, with a total area of 1,580 hectares (3,900 acres). It offers free public access to nearly all of its sites. Further news can be accessed via www.coed-cadw.org.uk The Trust adopted its Welsh language name in 2000: “Coed Cadw”. This is an old Welsh term, used in medieval laws to describe protected or preserved woodland.
The Reading Agency
The Reading Agency is an independent reading development agency, a charity, funded by Arts Council England. It works mainly with public libraries to achieve its vision of a society in which everyone has free, democratic access to reading. The charity’s main areas of work are policy, research, advocacy, national partnerships and national programmes like the Summer Reading ChallengeTM – all with an emphasis on innovation.
Now in its ninth year, the reading challenge, is a favourite with children and their parents. It makes visits to the local library during the summer holidays extra special fun for children by offering great incentives and rewards for reading. Last year 660,000 children took part in The Reading Mission reading challenge, over half of them reading six or more books.
Breathing Places and BBC Vision Learning:
Breathing Places is a ground breaking collaboration between the BBC and leading wildlife and conservation organisations that connects people with nature in an enjoyable way. The BBC Breathing Places initiative sits within the BBC Vision Learning section of the BBC and has been running since 2005. BBC Vision Learning projects work with broadcast programmes and take these from being passively consumed on TV to actively engaging the public with the programmes.
BBC Breathing Places works with a number of broadcast partners like Springwatch, Autumnwatch, CBBC and CBeebies, and external partners (environmental organisations, charities, etc) – to engage people with nature. www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
