Planted-Tree Woods Mark Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

A wealth of new UK woodland is set to spring up in connection with the Queen's 2012 Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

The Jubilee Woods programme is being organised by the Woodland Trust group and aims, next month, to get no less than one million trees planted in honour of the Queen. Any group wanting to be involved in this project is invited to obtain tree-planting packs via the Woodland Trust's website and, in all, it's planned for six million trees to go up all across the UK.

That's 100,000 trees for every year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, which began in 1952.

Jubilee Woods

There will be 60 iconic Diamond Woods - all at least 60 acres in size - a central Diamond Park and a huge number of smaller Jubilee Woods, both helping to perpetuate the Queen's Jubilee celebrations for years to come and, at the same time, adding to the UK's woodland areas.

This isn't the first time that trees have been planted en masse to mark a Royal event: in the early 20th century, a similar process occurred to recognise the coronation of King George VI and was subsequently recorded in The Royal Record of Tree Planting. This document is now online and available to view on the Woodland Trust's website - included is a search facility that can highlight to UK residents where their nearest Royal tree lies.

Queen's Diamond Jubilee

"From helping to create 60 new Diamond Woods, planting new woodland with communities, donating funds to help plant trees, to planting trees in school grounds or a single tree in your garden or pot, it's easy to plant trees for the Jubilee and help us reach a million trees in a month", Georgina McLeod, who's leading the Queen's Diamond Jubilee planting programme, explained in a statement quoted by the BBC.

The actual Diamond Jubilee anniversary date is 8 Feb and, on this date, Queen Elizabeth II will become only the second British Queen to have reigned for sixty years, alongside Queen Victoria.

The celebrations include a one-off extra public holiday for British workers on 5 June 2012.