ENVIRONMENTAL charity Avon Needs Trees has received an anonymous £25,000 donation towards the purchase of a second piece of land in Wiltshire to create new woodland.

The charity hopes to be in a position to buy the 19 acres in Seend in the spring, and received a very big boost this week with the donation from a Bristol-based individual towards the £175,000 needed to complete the deal.

Nikki Jones, chairwoman of Bristol-based Avon Needs Trees, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled. This takes us much closer to the £175,000 purchase price of the land.

"We still need to raise another £30,000 but we’re increasingly confident that we will get there.”

Avon Needs Trees registered as a charity in July 2019 and aims to buy land in the Bristol-Avon catchment area to create new, permanent woodland through planting and rewilding.

Its objectives are to lock-up carbon, improve local biodiversity, provide natural flood management, and publicly accessible green space.

The 19-acres at Seend will be turned into a mix of woodland, community orchard, meadow and ponds.

“We’re gaining fantastic experience at our 34-acre site at Ratford, near Calne,” said Ms Jones.

“Despite Covid, almost 3,000 trees have gone into the ground this winter, and we have another 6,000 to go. Our volunteers have been fantastic.

"We look forward to replicating this at Seend – creating the ponds and meadow this summer, and planting 10,000 mixed native broadleafs next winter.”

The land the charity hopes to buy is located opposite Pile Farm and close to the Kennet & Avon Canal at Seend. Avon Needs Trees has also been offered a further five acres next to it to create the woodland.

One local resident, Jo McManus, is planning to run 10 kilometres around local villages on Saturday, February 27 dressed as a tree, with all sponsorship going to the charity.