Castle Howard Estate plants over 60,000 trees to create more woodland, as part of wider strategy to sequester carbon and increase biodiversity

Castle Howard has planted 60,978 trees in winter 2025/6 on the Castle Howard Estate, as part of a five-year plan to plant 100 hectares of new woodland, supported by the Forestry Commission England Woodland Creation Offer.

Trees have been planted between the Stray (the six-kilometre public road that stretches through the Estate) and the village of Terrington, as well as extending and connecting woodlands along Slingsby bank, and through Fryton Moor. All saplings have come from the Castle Howard Tree Nursery, and are mostly oak, beech, hornbeam, blackthorn and hazel. This work has been led by Duncan Leckie, Forestry Manager at Castle Howard, with planting carried out by the forestry team, partner contractors and conservation volunteers.

The work marks the largest-scale planting on the Estate in over 50 years.

The new saplings are protected by bioplastic guards and ties, an innovative alternative to conventional plastic guards and spirals. In the last five years, the Estate has worked extensively with the Howardian Hills National Landscape to recover plastics from the landscape with the support of staff, volunteers and community champions. Through this work, 14 hectares of woodlands have had guards removed and the six-kilometre length of the Stray, through the centre of the Estate, has been cleared of hedgerow spirals.

Rainbow, a recycling centre in Hull, has developed specialist recycling capability for the hedgerow spirals, and has supplied the specialist biodegradable guards made from wood and vegetable resin. This has been supported by funding from the Forestry Commission and the Howardian Hills National Landscape.

Castle Howard’s Head of Natural Environment Guy Thallon said:

“We are thrilled to have planted so many trees this winter. Woodland creation is a key pillar of Castle Howard’s Natural Environment strategy, extending the existing 1000 hectares of woodland managed by the Estate, and creating the ancient woodlands of the future. In the next five years, our goal is to increase our woodlands by 10% by adding 100ha to the current 1000ha. 

Woodland creation at scale is critically important to sequestering carbon in the global efforts to avoid the worst climate change warming scenarios. Similarly, in a changing climate, the expansion of woodlands creates additional habitat to reduce and reverse the loss of biodiversity, contributing towards regional 30x30 targets. The diverse palette of the Estate’s woodlands has provided significant resilience to change over time, but increasing biosecurity concerns, changing weather patterns and extreme weather events underpin the need to plant more trees. At present, the whole Estate is 30% trees, and we take our responsibility to care for them seriously.”