Everyone loves trees, and The National Forest offers the perfect Valentine's Day gift this year: give a National Forest Plant a Tree package and you'll be supporting a whole forest!

Plant a Tree gives you the chance to plant a tiny tree in the Forest yourselves.

First, add your personal message to a certificate available online on The National Forest website to present to your loved one on Valentine's Day. You will then be invited to attend a special tree planting event in the Forest, when you can choose your tiny 'whip' from a selection of oak, silver birch, rowan, small leaved lime or other native trees that may be available.

With the help of foresters from the National Forest Company, you then plant your tree in a new woodland that will always be open for you to visit. You can return and enjoy the woodland as it grows and develops, seeing the wildlife that make it their home, and the trees as they change with the seasons and over the years.

It is said that an oak tree can live for hundreds of years, taking 200 years to grow, 200 years to mature and 200 years to die. Eight and a half million trees have been planted in The National Forest in the Midlands over the last 25 years, and many thousands of these are oak trees. Your Valentine's gift will be part of creating The National Forest, the boldest environmentally-led sustainable regeneration initiative in the country.

Plant a Tree in The National Forest costs £25, which reflects the true cost of the tree, the land and the future care of the woodland. You can buy it online at http://www.nationalforest.org/sponsor/plantatree/ or call the National Forest Company on 01283 551211.

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Media contact: Carol Rowntree Jones, Media Relations Officer, National Forest Company,

Tel: 01283 551211; email: crowntreejones@nationalforest.org

For background information on The National Forest see www.nationalforest.org

Digital images are available, please email 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 over 20 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, now also a charity, continues to receive grant support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Charity no: 1166563.
4. The National Forest celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2016. To mark its first quarter century, people who live and work in the Forest, and visitors throughout its 200 square miles, are invited to contribute pictures, film, music and words to 'My National Forest', an online resource that will capture a snapshot of what the Forest means to people in its 25th year. www.nationalforest.org/mynationalforest