Greenwood is Nottinghamshire’s Community Forest — a vibrant landscape of woodlands, farmland, open spaces and communities spanning 246 square miles. Covering 41% of the county and home to over a million people, Greenwood plays a vital role in enhancing the natural environment, supporting wildlife, and improving quality of life.
Greenwood is hosted and supported by Nottinghamshire County Council and collaborates with a wide range of partners across the public, private and voluntary sectors, along with local communities, to plant trees and improve our natural environment. Trees and woodland ecosystems are an important part of our landscape and our local identity. They contribute significantly to leisure and tourism, health and wellbeing, economic prosperity, nature recovery and environmental resilience.
The Greenwood Community Forest Vision is ‘A thriving landscape, rich in trees and woodlands, benefiting people, nature and the planet’
Our mission is to maintain and expand a multi-purpose forest with a rich mixture of woods, farmland, open spaces and settlements in Nottinghamshire, contributing towards sustainable development and providing a healthy and resilient environment for people and wildlife to live in and benefit from.
Greenwood is a part of a network of 15 Community Forest across England. Each Community Forest has a Forest Plan which describes the proposals for developing that Forest over the next 25 years. This Forest Plan, which updates the previous version published in 2000, builds on Greenwood’s long-term experience and impact since being established in 1991, working with local communities, partner organisations and groups to plant over 3.4 million trees and establish over 1,900 hectares of new woodland habitats.
Over the past five years the Trees for Climate programme, part of the national, Government-led, Nature for Climate fund delivered by England’s Community Forests, has enabled Greenwood to establish over 570 hectares of new woodland habitats in Nottinghamshire, increasing the many benefits they provide and bringing substantial investment into the local economy.
Whilst many of the reasons for forming Greenwood remain relevant today, significant changes in the physical, social, environmental and political landscape provide new challenges and new opportunities, requiring an updated strategy.
The Greenwood area has been reviewed and a decision has been made to expand it, placing Sherwood Forest at its heart and extending towards the east to include the large urban area of Newark- on-Trent, bringing the many benefits to a larger part of the county and to more people.
Our tree and woodland planting, along with the management of existing habitats, is guided by robust data, opportunity mapping and ‘on the ground’ knowledge, and managed in accordance with best practice, in line with the principles set out in the UK Forestry Standard.
The aspirations of the Forest Plan align with local, regional and national strategies, and advocate for collaborative working to maximise expertise, resources and impact. The Plan is a call to action, marking the start of an exciting new chapter for Greenwood Community Forest.