Green Lancaster is a collaborative initiative run by Lancaster University and Lancaster University Students' Union. Forests of the future is a project, first proposed by students, to offset travel related emission by Lancaster University. The project takes place over 0.5-hectares of open bank grassland at the university owned Forest Hill site. The 'proof of concept' occurred in March 2018 over a 4-day planting period. Many key stakeholders were involved including Lancaster Environment Centre, Facilities, and Lancaster University Students' Union. The project was managed and implemented by Green Lancaster, the sustainability division of the Students' Union.
150 volunteers took part over the 4-day planting period including staff and students of Lancaster University, as well as ten visiting students from Sunway University in Malaysia and forty geography pupils from Ripley St. Thomas Academy in Lancaster. The project was developed in partnership with the Woodland Trust (North West Team) with the chosen tree species mix including Oak, Rowan, Alder, Silver Birch, Dogwood, Willow, Hazel and Hawthorn. In 2019, 2,000 more trees are being planted across the site with help from local volunteers and students and Lancaster University is exploring the opportunities to expand this project.
Green Lancaster are a Tree Charter Branch and are part of NUS' Students for Trees project. For Tree Charter Day 2018, they ran a series of week long events around trees and why they inspire us. Students for Trees council member, Holly Mills, is studying Geography at Lancaster University and during this week used the board below to ask students to write down their best tree related memory and why trees are important to students.
