Each Sequoia is planted in its own 100 m2 plot (about the size of a 2 bed apartment) together with c.20 other nurse crop treess of varying species to provide protection from frost and wind. We plant 3 native trees for every Sequoia to promote biodiversity. The trees are protected from browsing wildlife by methods recommended to us by our forestry experts overseeing each grove to promote maximum growth and success.

We use local forestry contractors for each of our groves to support the local communities, and have donated Sequoia trees and provided education sessions to local schools to help with environmental awareness and learning.

We ensure we own the land the Sequoias are planted on to control the site. Furthermore once we have reaached our goal of planting 100,000 Sequoias we intend to incorporate a foundation/charity to become the steward of the trees for their remaining natural lifetime.

In the event any Sequoia does not survive we replace it with a new sapling. Sequoia trees are notoriously hardy and we do not anticipate many losses of mature trees.

Our primary goal is to create a network of old growth Giant Sequoias in the UK to replicate what few are left in their native habitat in the USA. Effectively an insurance against the worsening impacts of climate change that has brought about droughts, superheated wildfires, and greater bark beetle fatalities. Sequoias were native to the UK pre-Ice Age. More recently they returned here during the Victorian period by those facinated by their size and magnificence. We now have many thousands of Sequoias in the UK and they have proven to be entirely non-invasive.

We get asked regularly about why we are not planting exclusively native species. Our response is that we are facing a very real climate emergency caused by an increasing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to find a response to this escalating issue that is in proportion to the cause, the mass burning of fossil fuels. There is currently no industrial viable solution on offer, so we must turn to nature and plant trees. The primary resource that trees use up that is in scarce supply is land, or more accurately land with owners who are willing to give up any commercial use and dedicate their asset to tree planting for carbon capture. As land is the limiting factor for tree planting, we must plant trees that are the most efficient at carbon capture per acre. The species most capable of carbon capture per acre is the Giant Sequoia, due to its massive volume accumulated over time. Even over a 100 year period, a Sequoia grove can capture in the region of 10x more CO2 vs. a native tree woodland. We are not ignoring the plight of native trees, we care deeply about them and would never cut down or harm a native woodland. In fact we plant three native trees for each Sequoia at our sites to promote biodiversity. Oak is our predominant tree of choice given it supports more biodiversity than any other native tree. Two little known facts are that Giant Sequoias were once native to the UK pre-ice age, and they do not propagate in the UK due to a lack of wildfires needed to open their seed cones. They are totally non-invasive for that reason. Bottom line is the world is heating up at an alarming rate. That in itself is a major threat to UK native woodlands. Our project is a response to today’s climate emergency by unleashing the power of the most mighty CO2 capturing tree on earth, that not only removes CO2, but holds onto it for over 1000 years. We care deeply about native trees, but we also care about our planet, and this is our way of doing the maximum to save it, and the diversity of species and ecosystems that it supports. We are looking big picture, and long term.

To put this in further context, according to Timothy J. Fahey, professor of ecology in the department of natural resources at Cornell University,

“An approximate value for a 50-year-old oak forest would be 30,000 pounds of carbon dioxide sequestered per acre,”. That is 15 tonnes. By comparison a Giant Sequoia grove will be closer to 200 tonnes over the same period, using UK growth rates seen in Sequoias that have been in the UK for over 150 years.

Reference link here: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/how-many-pounds-of-carbon-dioxide-does-our-forest-absorb.html

We have planted groves in Hampshire, Abergavenny and Brecon. Our current planting site is near Abergavenny in Wales.

In order to future proof our groves from drought we now only plant in locations with 1 meter or more rainfall per annum. Future locations under consideration are Devon, Lake District, and Scotland.