60 new woodlands announced to mark Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Sites for 60 new large woodlands marking the Queen's Diamond Jubilee have been announced by the Woodland Trust.

The "diamond woods" will each be at least 60 acres, or more than one and a half times the size of the grounds at Buckingham Palace, planted with native trees.

Woods will be created in every region of the UK from Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides to Truro in Cornwall by a range of landowners and organisations including local authorities, universities and businesses and even the Royal Marines.

Trees for Life, a charity dedicated to restoring native Caledonian woodland in the Scottish Highlands, will establish a diamond wood at its Dundreggan estate, near Loch Ness.

The National Trust will create a diamond wood at Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and another wood will be created at Ffos Las race course in Carmarthenshire.

The Woodland Trust is creating a flagship "Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood" in the National Forest in Leicestershire and even the Queen is taking part with a wood planted at Balmoral.

The scheme has proved so popular, the Trust has secured an extra six sites for 60-acre woods and is looking for landowners to come forward so it can create 19 princess woods to recognise the years before the Queen ascended to the throne.

The charity said more than 250 smaller Jubilee Woods will also be created as part of efforts to plant six million trees in 2012.

Woodland Trust Jubilee woods director Georgina McLeod said: "We're absolutely delighted that so many different organisations and landowners have joined with the Trust to create these 60 very special Diamond Woods.

"They will help make a massive difference to the environment and pay a special tribute to Her Majesty the Queen.

"By the end of the project millions of people will have planted trees, a testament to the nation's love for trees and our second longest reigning monarch."

PA