Our plan

More with Trees: The Mersey Forest Plan is the long-term strategic guide for the work of our team and partners, extending to 2050 and beyond.

It includes our vision and key principles, organised under the headings Why, What, Who, How, and Where. The Where principles also include area-specific spatial principles. The When aspects are covered by our Delivery Plan, which sets out targets and programmes of work over a shorter 5 year period.

The ongoing delivery and impact of The Mersey Forest Plan is showcased throughout our website, and in particular on the our impact and our work pages.

The 2025 version is the fourth iteration of The Mersey Forest Plan. It was co-created with partners and underwent a public consultation. It has been approved by our Steering Group, and is now subject to formal approval from their organisations. The full, Steering Group approved Plan is presented on this webpage. A summary version is also available.

More with Trees

Acting together to grow and care for trees and woods, as part of a thriving mosaic of habitats in and around Cheshire and Merseyside’s cities, towns and villages.

Intertwining cherished trees with people’s lives and livelihoods, flourishing nature, and strengthened climate resilience.

Inspiring action and spreading hope for our future.

The Mersey Forest team and partners can use the Plan to:

• Facilitate partnership working and cross boundary cooperation to achieve the vision.
• Guide the development of projects and funding bids, and to attract investment.​
• Guide our ongoing work to establish, look after, and nurture a culture of trees, woods, and other habitats.
• Broaden the discussion about trees and woods, and facilitate the delivery of tree and woodland actions and measures, in other local strategies and plans. This includes, but is not limited to, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Climate Plans​, and Green Infrastructure Strategies.
• Help shape our partners’ strategies and policies, ensuring strong support for The Mersey Forest Plan and its delivery.​
• Contribute to place making, new development, regeneration and restructuring, by securing recognition to it within Local Plans. Paragraph 152 of the National Planning Policy Framework says “Community Forests offer valuable opportunities for improving the environment around towns and cities, by upgrading the landscape and providing for recreation and wildlife… An approved Community Forest Plan may be a material consideration in preparing development plans and in deciding planning applications. Any development proposals within… Community Forests in the Green Belt should be subject to the normal policies for controlling development in Green Belts”.
• Contribute to neighbourhood planning, setting out and supporting local priorities and aspirations.
• Aid communications, including raising awareness, showcasing achievements, demonstrating the importance of trees and woodlands, and influencing policy beyond our core partnership.

The Mersey Forest Plan and its delivery is influenced by national, regional and local policy contexts. Our team and partners keep abreast of changes to these over time and react to new national and local policy drivers. We also scan the horizon for future changes, and help to shape these where we can. Some key national policies include the:

• Environmental Improvement Plan, which is the first revision of the 25 Year Environment Plan. It sets out the target to “Increase tree canopy and woodland cover from 14.5% to 16.5% of total land area in England by 2050”.
• Net Zero Strategy, which sets out policies for decarbonising the UK economy to meet net zero by 2050. A key commitment is to treble woodland creation rates in England, contributing to the UK’s target of increasing planting to 30,000 hectares per year by 2025.
• National Planning Policy Framework, which sets out the government’s planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied. It states that “an approved Community Forest Plan may be a material consideration in preparing development plans and in deciding planning applications”.

Regional and local climate, environment, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, and Local Plans include targets and priorities for tree planting and woodland creation, and support protection and enhancement of existing trees and woodland in their areas.

We will update this section shortly to include our latest national and local policy reviews.

To support the development of The Mersey Forest Plan, we commissioned a structured review into the benefits of trees and woods, as relevant to England’s Community Forests. This review showed how trees provide a wide range of benefits to people, nature, and climate.

For people – Trees and woods were found to improve mental health, reducing stress levels and promoting wellbeing. In some instances, woodlands were found to be more beneficial for health than other types of greenspaces. They act as a barrier to the visual and noise impacts of the built environment, with the complexity and diversity of woodland promoting fascination and distraction from mental discomfort. They benefit physical health, with lower incidences of mortality, respiratory problems and health costs arising from air pollution in areas with a high proportion of woodland. There were lower incidences of obesity and heart failure in areas with a high proportion of woodland. Trees reduce harmful exposure to ultraviolet rays and heat-related illnesses. They positively impact on levels of physical activity in urban areas, particularly for active travel and children’s play. They benefit children’s cognitive and emotional learning through forest schools, with trees promoting a range of play-based behaviours.

For local economies, trees bring more character, attract more visits and drive higher customer expenditure in shopping areas. They generally increase property values where street trees are present. Trees provide a range of cultural and aesthetic values, including archaeological and heritage features and inspiring artists. They can also support farming livelihoods, supporting livestock welfare through agroforestry by providing shelter. They improve soil health by reducing soil erosion and compaction.

For nature – Trees and woods support nature, with mature woodland and woodland remnants on farms shown to be particularly important for biodiversity. They benefit pollinators and natural predators in arable farms. They were also found to benefit aquatic biodiversity by reducing river temperatures.

For climate – Trees and woods lower the risks of surface water flooding and runoff in urban and rural areas, helping to prevent flooding and improve water quality. They sequester substantial amounts of carbon in biomass and soils, and in urban trees. Trees reduce urban air pollution by absorbing gases, capturing particulates and altering ambient airflow. They mitigate the urban heat island effect. They reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling buildings by providing shade, reducing wind exposure, and through the cooling effects of water evaporation.

We have fed in a lot of people’s thoughts and ideas as we have created our refreshed Mersey Forest Plan. In particular:

• Our team – shared their ideas, and indirectly the thoughts of partners and communities they work closely with.
• Our steering group – had quarterly updates on the plan refresh, and individual meetings with each partner which involved other colleagues.
• An advisory group – was established to act as a critical friend, with over 60 people from national to local organisations and community representatives, with expertise relating to the range of themes covered by our work.
• Children and young people – we have been lucky to work on this alongside the Voices of the Future and Digital Voices of the Future projects. This has allowed us to feed in children and young peoples voices in a number of ways including through the creation of a manifesto with primary school children, through a site visit to a local park with global youth, and through the development of a video game with primary and secondary school children.
• Local Nature Recovery Strategies for Cheshire and Liverpool City Region – we have been working closely alongside the development of these, and have fed in thoughts of the public and landowners gathered through their engagement activities.
• Groundswell Consortium – the team at the University of Liverpool have been working with us in relation to health, feeding into some of our metrics.
• England’s Community Forests – all 15 Forests have worked together as we have developed our own Forest Plans, with support from Defra’s Trees for Climate Fund. This has included collaboration on the supporting evidence review and common metrics.
• Urban GreenUp – we were delighted be part of this award winning EU Horizon funded programme which provided support and ideas in the early development of our plan.