Another 2,000 trees were planted across two days at St Donat’s Castle with students from more than 90 countries, among them young people from royal families and refugee camps, with all continents represented. The SUSCO sustainability team brought music and fun and everyone’s spirit was lifted.
A woodland restoration planting, filling gaps left by the removal of the invasive Ponticum rhododendron. 900 sapling trees grown by the Woodland Trust were planted with metre-high guards against roe and muntjac deer.
1,500 trees planted in patches on the Falmer campus to work around mature trees whose canopy would later shade out saplings. This planting had 18 species, including trees grown by the Special Branch Nursery from seeds foraged in the adjacent Stanmer Valley. Among them: the Purging Buckthorn, sole food plant of the Brimstone butterfly.
The school playing field at the newly named Thornton Grove primary slopes down towards the Pevensey Levels. The mini forest is being planted in the bottom corner where the ground is too waterlogged for mowing.
The neighbourhood around Thornton Grove Primary has just 3% tree canopy cover against a 24% target — rated highest priority for tree planting in the UK. On 2 December 2025, every child and teacher in the school worked alongside Dream For Trees to plant at least one tree each
The Woodland Trust’s State of the UK’s Woods and Trees 2025 found that between 2020 and 2024, the UK met an average of 45% of its annual woodland creation targets. Woodland butterfly populations have declined by 47% since 1990; woodland birds by 37% since 1970. The report calls for the current rate of woodland creation to be tripled. The UK government’s target is to plant 30,000 hectares of new woodland by March 2025. On current progress, according to a report published today by Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, it is planting less than half that rate.
A planting day starts with bare ground and ends with a forest. Between those two things: a community of volunteers — different backgrounds, different ages — working together in the soil. Most come back. Some bring their children. That’s what this is for.
