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Over 10,000 new trees planted across North Northamptonshire this season

Environment

08 April 2026

Photo of two men planting trees

As this year’s tree planting season comes to an end, North Northamptonshire Council is celebrating the successful delivery of its annual planting programme, made possible through strong support from schools, volunteers, community groups and local businesses who joined council teams in planting 10,177 new trees across the area.

More than 202 volunteer hours have been contributed this season, showing the strong community support behind the programme and the shared commitment to nature recovery and enhancing much loved local spaces across North Northamptonshire.

The highlights below show just some of the many community-led and council-led planting events delivered throughout the season:

  • Students at Isebrook School in Kettering, who planted 300 trees as part of their new forest school area.
  • A 12 strong volunteer team from local design and manufacturing business – Haddonstone, joined council officers at Desborough Greenspace to help replant trees affected by last summer’s dry weather.
  • Significant planting across the Country Parks, including nearly 3,000 new whips at East Carlton Park to form a new native hedgerow.
  • Continued work with the Wellingborough Eco Group, helping to plant new trees in local parks and community spaces.
  • A popular tree giveaway, supported by the Woodland Trust, which saw 2,000 trees shared with 36 schools, community groups, residents and parish/town councils.
  • The council’s tree team have planted 1550 standard trees throughout North Northamptonshire. 
     

A key focus this year was replacing young trees that didn’t survive last summer’s prolonged dry spell. Whips can be vulnerable in extreme weather, so replanting helps ensure previous years’ efforts continue to grow into healthy woodlands and wildlife corridors. 

Alongside this, the team has planted new native hedgerows and continued to use native species, chosen to support local wildlife and help increase canopy cover over time. 

As they grow, these young trees will create important habitats, boost biodiversity, enhance parks and public spaces and provide wellbeing and volunteering benefits for local communities, while also helping to build long‑term climate resilience.

As part of the planting, 305 trees have been planted across the Corby area as part of ongoing improvements connected to the Town Centre to Train Station Link route. The new trees- carefully selected to thrive in local conditions - have been planted along the project route and in areas across Corby including in the grounds of Tresham College and West Glebe Park. 25 trees were also planted in Coronation Park as part of the scheme in the last planting season. 

I’m delighted to see so many new native trees planted across North Northamptonshire this season. This has been a genuine community effort, with schools, volunteers, local groups and council teams all coming together to make a real difference.

Every single tree planted will help improve our parks and green spaces, support local wildlife and strengthen our natural environment for years to come. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken the time to get involved, and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together.Cllr Ken Harrington, Executive Member for Assets, Waste and Environmental Services
We are pleased to support schemes like that enhance the area as we know how popular trees and green spaces are to residents across the whole of North Northamptonshire. Each of these trees will bring enormous benefits to communities, including helping with mental wellbeing and improving the local area.Cllr Martin Griffiths, Leader of the Council

This year’s planting was supported by:

  • Carbon Footprint - provided free trees for Country Parks and Parish Councils
  • The UK Shared Prosperity Fund - helped stock the Tree Bank used for this season’s Wellingborough planting events
  • The Woodland Trust - supplied trees for the giveaway and their Free Trees for Schools and Communities scheme
  • The Trees Outside Woodland programme - supported the planting of standard trees on publicly accessible land

Tree planting will continue to play a key role in the Council’s nature recovery work. Future priorities include expanding urban tree cover, linking woodland areas, planting along rivers and watercourses, and supporting natural regeneration - all contributing towards the Local Nature Recovery Strategy target of increasing tree canopy cover to 17%.