Local MP appeals for volunteers to get behind Frodsham community woodland

Cheshire MP Mike Amesbury is encouraging volunteers to get behind a project to transform the former Frodsham Golf Club into a community woodland.

Woodland Trust will manage the land for the benefit of wildlife as well as the health of the local population who discovered its recreational value during lockdown.

Turning the course into woodland will reconnect the ancient woods of Snidley Moor, Woodhouse Hill and Frodsham Hill Woods.

But one-third of the course will remain open space such as glades sown with wildflowers, retaining views of the Sandstone Ridge, River Mersey, Liverpool and the Welsh Hills.

Mr Amesbury, who was given a walking tour of the site by the trust team, said: “This fantastic Woodland Trust project will help nature and people to thrive. There’s rightly a lot of talk about the environmental crisis. Well, the response has got to include rewilding and tree planting, especially given Cheshire as a whole is low in tree cover.

“What an opportunity this is to create a woodland that is open to the community! I’m so pleased the site hasn’t been sold off for development and will be preserved as a green space to be enjoyed for generations to come.”

The Weaver Vale MP added: “This ambitious initiative will involve planting some 40,000 trees, starting next autumn. Woodland Trust will be holding community planting days but is also keen to get individuals and groups involved, young and old, across the planting season. Keep an eye on their website for details.”

The woodland will develop as native broadleaf woodland and all trees planted will help to grow The Mersey Forest and the larger Northern Forest, which stretches from Liverpool to the Yorkshire coast.

Woodland Trust site manager Neil Oxley said: “It’s an opportunity to get local people involved. That’s what we want. We want to engage with local people and make them feel like it’s their space. Somewhere they can come and get close to nature, whether with kids or dogs or just themselves, and get all those benefits from being outdoors.”

For more details about the Woodland Trust, including volunteer opportunities, visit: 

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

Or for information on tree planting opportunities across the Northern Forest, visit: 

https://thenorthernforest.org.uk/get-involved/