Community forests in England

{{Short description|ENGLAND COMMUNITY FOREST}}

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England's community forests are afforestation-based regeneration projectshttp://www.communityforest.org.uk/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050307094304/http://www.communityforest.org.uk/ |date=2005-03-07 }} {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}} which were established in the early 1990s.{{Cite news |date=2005-11-09 |title=Escape to the city |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/nov/09/guardiansocietysupplement1 |access-date=2023-02-15 |issn=0261-3077}} Each of them is a partnership between the Forestry Commission and the Countryside Agency, which are agencies of the British government, and the relevant local councils.

Most of the designated areas are close to large cities and contain large amounts of brownfield, underused and derelict land. When the forests were created the average forest cover in the designated areas was 6.9%, and the target is to increase this to 30% over about 30 years. As most of the land is in private ownership the schemes rely mainly on providing landowners with incentives to plant trees. However the forests contain areas of publicly accessible open land, and increasing public access is one of the objectives.

The table below lists the community forests. As some of them straddle county boundaries they are listed by region and town or city.

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Forest ! Region ! City ! Area ! Website
Forest of Avon | Bristol and Avon | Bristol | {{convert|221|sqmi|km2}} | [https://forestofavontrust.org]
Great Western Community Forest | Swindon and surrounding area | Swindon | {{convert|168|sqmi|km2}} | [https://swindon.gov.uk/info/20059/land_and_premises/1134/great_western_community_forest/]
Greenwood Community Forest | West Nottinghamshire | Nottingham | {{convert|161|sqmi|km2}} | [http://greenwoodforest.org.uk/]
Forest of Marston Vale | Bedford to Milton Keynes | Bedford | {{convert|61|sqmi|km2}} | [http://marstonvale.org/]
Forest of Mercia | Staffordshire and West Midlands | Birmingham | {{convert|92|sqmi|km2}} | [https://www.forestofmercia.com/]
Mersey Forest | Merseyside and north Cheshire | Liverpool | {{convert|420|sqmi|km2}} | [http://merseyforest.org.uk/]
City of Trees | Greater Manchester | Manchester | {{convert|492|sqmi|km2}} | [http://cityoftrees.org.uk/]
Humber Forest | East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull and North Lincolnshire | Hull | {{convert|1283|sqmi|km2}} | [https://www.humberforest.org/]
Thames Chase | Bruntwood, Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Thurrock and Essex | London | {{convert|40|sqmi|km2}} | [http://thameschase.org.uk/]
White Rose Forest | Leeds City, North and West Yorkshire | Leeds | {{convert|4124|sqmi|km2}} | [https://www.whiteroseforest.org]