Hosted by the Ribble Rivers Trust

Lancashire Woodland Connect Campaign is a decade-long campaign to double the area of woodland across Lancashire to fight climate change, improve air quality and reduce flooding. We will plant more than half a million trees to reduce flooding, improve air quality and remove 100,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Working with private and public sector supporters together with community-based groups and conservation charities, we are aiming to create 100 kilometres of new or restored woodland alongside the Rivers Ribble, Lune and Wyre and their whole catchments.

Dedicated farm and woodland advisors within the three trusts work with our fabulous farmers to find areas of land to create woodland that would not only have a positive impact on water quality but also farm businesses. The introduction of the EWCO, carbon capture payments for farmers are creating an alternative income to compliment a productive farm business.

This aim of this session is to highlight the opportunities within the campaign, the evidence that is used to identify potential planting locations, developing a scheme alongside farmer priorities and the funding opportunities for farmers and landowners in Lancashire.

Speakers/hosts include:

Jack Spees – Jack started at the Ribble Rivers Trust in 2008 as the Fisheries Scientist before being made Trust Director in 2010. Jack now oversees the work undertaken by the Trust and the team as well as providing a wealth of information on all aspects of the river environment.

Kristina Graves – Kristina began working for the Trust in 2019, joining us to fill the new role of Woodland Creation Officer. Having worked on a range of habitat projects Kristina has an excellent knowledge of woodlands and ecology which is already proving to be a huge asset to the team.

Kathryn Oddie – Kathryn joined the team in 2019. Kathryn works as a farm advisor for the trust on the Ribble Life Together project and runs the River Loud farm group. As well as being a local farmers daughter, she has a background in agri- environment and environmental monitoring.

Heather Whalley – Heather is a farmer from the Hodder Valley, with a passion for the environment and combining sustainable farming and conservation. With a great knowledge of the local area, her work as a farm advisor will be to engage, visit and support farmers to make positive changes for the catchment