Blenheim Palace is giving people the unique opportunity to give a conscious gift this Christmas and help the environment by having a tree planted on the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Each tree sponsorship costs £25 and includes a personalised, limited-edition certificate in a choice of design, which can be printed off at home to be put in a friend or family member’s Christmas stocking. Recipients of a sponsored tree can visit the Blenheim Palace and explore the ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped parkland on the numerous walking trails.
Rachel Furness-Smith, Head of Estates at Blenheim Palace said, “Tree sponsorship as an alternative gift is a wonderful way to create a lasting memory while also making a positive environmental impact.
“Your tree gifting this year will become an enduring part of Blenheim’s natural heritage. As the tree grows it will play a part in protecting our ecological systems both by capturing and storing carbon and by supporting a huge range of native wildlife.”
The trees being sponsored have been grown from seeds collected on the estate and will be planted to expand woodlands. These trees will grow alongside other woodlands at Blenheim Palace, one of which is home to the greatest collection of ancient oaks in Europe. Oak, cherry and beech trees are being planted as part of the tree sponsorship scheme which supports Blenheim’s wider tree-planting programme to restore and expand vital woodland habitat within the estate.
As part of its wider land strategy, Blenheim Palace is committed to becoming carbon neutral on scopes 1-3 of the Greenhouse Gas protocol across all operations by 2023. The estate is working with other groups and conservation organisations to create nine new woodlands on its land and plant more than 270,000 trees. As well as sequestering 22,000 tonnes of carbon across a quarter of a century, the tree planting projects includes the creation of a forest school, wildflower meadows, open spaces and more than 15km of linked public footpaths.
For more information on the tree sponsorship programme, please click here.
