Colleagues from Northern Gas Networks recently joined the White Rose Forest team to plant more than 200 trees in Todmorden as part of the Community Forest’s major tree planting programme across North and West Yorkshire.
Northern Gas Networks (NGN) delivers gas to 2.9 million homes and businesses across the North of England through its network of pipes.
Through its vision for a fairer, greener future for this region it has been supporting a range of White Rose Forest woodland creation projects(WRF) as part of its ongoing commitment to sustainability.
To really get hands on with the tree planting action a group of colleagues from NGN’s Regulation and Strategy team joined the team from WRF on a misty but mercifully dry spring morning in Todmorden.
Helping to alleviate flooding
The West Yorkshire town is on the western edge of NGN’s patch, and is particularly vulnerable to flooding due to its location in a valley.
After receiving a quick crash course in tree planting from the WRF team, they set to work carefully planting TYPE saplings on the steep hillside.
Neil Whalley, Head of Environment and Sustainability at Northern Gas Networks, said: “We were delighted to spend a day joining the fantastic White Rose Forest (WRF) team planting more than 200 trees at one of their sites in Todmorden.
“We have an enduring and successful partnership with WRF, and planting trees on sites like this helps alleviate flooding and creates havens for wildlife. We’re very proud of the results of our partnership so far, which have resulted in the planting of many thousands of trees at numerous sites across our region.
“We’d like to thank everyone who has been involved – especially the many local volunteers who have given up their time to be involved.”
Funding tree planting across the North of England
Northern Gas Networks has funded the planting of new trees and hedgerows across its patch. These provide a wide range of environmental and social benefits including improving air quality, connecting people with nature to support wellbeing, enhancing the local area and creating “homes for nature” to boost biodiversity.
Many of the trees have been planted by local volunteers from schools, colleges and community action groups.
Benefits for Nature
Iwan Downey, White Rose Forest Programme Director, said: “Funding and volunteering from Northern Gas Networks over the last five years has been hugely helpful.
“It’s enabling the White Rose Forest partnership to plant more trees and hedgerows where they are needed the most for communities across North and West Yorkshire.
“We know that trees and woodland provide such a wide range of benefits for nature, our environment, people and places and we want to thank Northern Gas Networks for their support.”
The White Rose Forest is the Community Forest for North and West Yorkshire, and a partnership lead by the local authorities, combined authorities and national park authorities across the region and a team of experts in woodland creation and management. . It works closely with landowners, businesses and communities to plant and manage trees and woodland for the people, places and natural environment in Yorkshire.
They are planting millions of trees in urban centres and countryside that will help manage flood risk, combat climate change, create jobs and provide happier and healthier places to live, work in and enjoy.
Key stats
Key stats from the project – taken from Northern Gas Networks’ 2024-25 Annual Environment Report – include:
– Since 2021, Northern Gas Networks has supported the planting of more than 52,000 trees in its entire region, exceeding its original target of 40,000
– This tree planting programme is estimated to deliver over £22m in lifetime societal and environmental benefits to its communities by 2050, including air quality improvements valued at £1.65m (more on this here)
– Since 2017, Northern Gas Networks has created over 100 ‘homes for nature’ – the creation of habitat and changing vegetation management on its own land to encourage biodiversity., with a commitment to create 250 by 2026 –
– In 2024/25, Northern Gas Networks’ total carbon emissions fell by 7% compared to the previous year by a determined focus on reducing gas leakage
Find out more about Northern Gas Networks’ commitment to sustainability and the environment in its 2024-25 Annual Environment Report