Your favourite tree could become the UK’s Tree of the Year for 2016.
Conservation charity the Woodland Trust wants nature-lovers to nominate living trees for this year’s competition.
All they ask is that the tree should have a story to tell – whether a local legend, a brush with history, or a personal connection.
It’s the third year of the competition – previous winners were the Major Oak (pictured below) and Cubbington pear tree.
The 23-ton Major Oak is thought to be up to 1,000 years old and said to have been the hideout of Robin Hood and his merry men.
The 250-year-old tree at Cubbington in Warwickshire is one of the oldest and largest wild pears in the country, and lies in the proposed path of the HS2 rail line.
Win a health check for your tree
The winning tree will receive a £1,000 ‘pamper package’, which might include pruning, weeding, fencing or mulching – or events and educational materials.
And for the first time this year, there are runner’s up prizes.
Any tree that polls more than 1,000 nominations will receive £500, to be spent on “a physical check-up” for the tree, or “a party to celebrate its place in people’s hearts”, according to Jill Butler of the Woodland Trust.
The winner will be announced in October, and will then go on to compete in the European Tree of the Year.
The Woodland Trust was formed in 1972 and now claims more than 400,000 supporters.
The trust aims to plant native trees and woods, and to protect and restore ancient woodland.
How to enter...
For more information about the competition and to submit your nomination by the deadline of 29 July, 2016, visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/treeoftheyear
