On Monday 29 November, around 60 colleagues from across the Science Museum Group made their way to Wiltshire to plant 1,000 trees at our National Collections Centre.
Colleagues from the Visitor Experience, Learning, Communications teams and more came together to support SMG’s sustainability commitment of planting a thousand trees per year on our land throughout this decade.
Spirits were high despite the temperature nearing zero degrees, as colleagues took to the frosty grassland armed with shovels and mallets.
Following a brief demonstration by Jeremy from the Woodland Trust, it was time to get planting.
After digging holes to the right depth – much harder than Jeremy made it look – the tiny trees were planted, with a wrap added to protect them from wildlife.
As an organisation, the Science Museum Group is committed to planting a thousand native, locally-sourced trees each year for the next decade, as part of our pledge to remove greenhouse gases and increase the biodiversity of our site.
Trees and woodlands absorb carbon dioxide, provide oxygen to breathe and sustain wildlife and have a vital role to play in helping tackle climate change.
This year’s planting took place during National Tree Week in November in partnership with the Woodland Trust. We’ve added 1,000 trees to the 44,000 native trees already planted at the National Collections Centre.
The National Collections Centre is nestled within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Here we’ve carried out bat, bird, badger and reptile surveys to better understand the ecology of the site and inform our next steps on biodiversity.
We are introducing hedging to create connecting corridors between existing tree plantations as well as working with local community groups to use propagation and planting in therapy for people. We are also working with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust to create open access reserves.