Eastbourne to become Treebourne – volunteers needed

CPRE Sussex is part of a community network that is going to plant thousands of trees in Eastbourne. The ‘Treebourne project’ aims to double the town’s urban canopy and bring nature back into the streets.

Last year, Eastbourne Borough Council has declared a climate emergency and set a target of 2030 for the town to be carbon neutral.  The Eastbourne ECO Action Network is a volunteer-run organisation which includes CPRE Sussex, set up to work with the council towards achieving this goal. Within the Eastbourne ECO Action Network, the Treebourne team are focused on getting trees planted, on both public and private land.

Treebourne have been searching for sites – large and small – to plant trees, raising the money to buy them, enlisting the volunteers needed to plant them, and will be running the planting projects. We will start with 11,000 trees at Sevenoaks Road Recreation Ground followed by a further 3000 at Tugwell Park in the New Year.

Planting thousands of trees will help the battle against climate change and improve the quality of the natural environment for local residents. Ash Dieback disease and Dutch Elm disease have severely depleted Eastbourne’s tree cover recently, so the Treebourne project is absolutely vital at this time.

Fundraising for these projects has included support from the Trees for Cities charity and the government’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund, East Sussex County Council’s Building Stronger Communities Fund, as well as donations to the crowdfunder campaign earlier this year.

Volunteers are now urgently needed to help get the trees planted this winter. Planting starts on 6 December. If you can spare some time to help then please  Visit the Treebourne website at www.treebourne.org/sevenoaks-rec where you can find out more, provide feedback or get involved. Alternatively, you can email trees@treebourne.org