This weekend make the most of the beautiful autumn sunshine and collect acorns to grow your very own oak tree to plant in The National Forest.

The National Forest Company is inviting people to collect acorns, plant them up in a pot, pledge them to The National Forest and grow them at home for two years. The little trees are then on the register for The National Forest, and you will get an invitation to attend a special tree planting day to add your young trees to the millions of trees that are creating The National Forest.

You will be part of the tremendously exciting National Forest, a new forest covering 200 square miles of Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire, where more than 8 million trees have been planted over the last twenty years, in woodlands large and small.

Sue Anderson, Community Liaison Officer for the National Forest Company, said: "People from all over the country can enjoy gathering and planting acorns. It's a great moment when we all get together to proudly plant the two year old trees that have been so well nurtured and cherished."

See The National Forest website for more details on getting involved with Grow a Tree from Seed, and an illustrated guide to potting up and growing your acorns.

http://www.nationalforest.org/involved/seed.php 

It's free and it's fun - and you'll be part of the biggest environmental adventure in the country!

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Media enquiries:  For further information please contact Carol Rowntree Jones, Media Relations Officer, National Forest Company. Tel: 01283 551211; mob: 07870 568628; email: crowntreejones@nationalforest.org For background information on The National Forest and the National Forest Company see www.nationalforest.org

Digital images are available, contact media@nationalforest.org

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The National Forest area covers 200 square miles of the counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire.  Its objective is to increase woodland cover within its boundaries from an initial six per cent to about a third. No multi-purpose forest on this scale has been created in the UK for one thousand years. To date the proportion of woodland cover in the Forest has more than trebled to 19.5 per cent and in 2012 HRH the Duke of Cambridge planted the eight millionth tree in the Forest. 

2. Year by year, The National Forest has been steadily turning what was once one of the least wooded areas of England into a multi-purpose, sustainable forest.  The National Forest provides environmental, social and economic benefits, including landscape enhancement, creation of new wildlife habitats and major new access and leisure opportunities. It is an excellent example of sustainable development - with environmental improvement providing a stimulus both to economic regeneration and to community pride and activity.

3. To achieve these objectives, the National Forest Company leads the creation of The National Forest, working in partnership with landowners, local authorities, private business, voluntary organisations and local communities and has strong support from Government, politicians and the public.  The Company receives grant in aid from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

4. The Independent Panel on Forestry, in its final report published in July 2012, stated: 'The National Forest exemplifies how a long term, resourced and focused agenda can increase publicly accessible woodland in an area alongside other environmental and economic benefits.'

5. In 2008, the National Forest Company and partners won the inaugural Sustainable Development UK Award, for their work in Ashby Woulds, at the heart of The National Forest.