Ground Control celebrated the 50th annual National Tree Week

Working alongside The Tree Council, B Local and Ground Control Volunteers

Throughout National Tree Week 2025, Ground Control, aided by our volunteers, completed a series of activities and events to celebrate the annual campaign. Events included Ground Control volunteer days at our Wildfell Habitat Bank, participating in local Tree Council projects, and hosting B Local at a unique planting day for Essex companies with B Corp certification.

National Tree Week, brought to you by The Tree Council and partners, brings together the conservation sector, volunteers and tree-lovers to mark the start of the annual tree planting season by planting thousands of trees and hedgerows and celebrating these magnificent mainstays of our landscapes.

Ground Control and EverCare events

Working at the Wildfell Habitat Bank, and 296-acre nature recovery site initially created by EverCare, Ground Control hosted a series of events to promote the 50th iteration of the campaign by:

Hosting Ground Control volunteer days, carrying out essential maintenance to trees and shrubs planted in the previous planting season, as well as planting new native trees and shrubs.
Facilitating a volunteer planting day at our Wildfell Habitat Bank of B Local Essex, a collection of Essex-based companies with B Corp certification.

Two volunteers in high-viz, planting small trees (whips) in a field — *Volunteers from B Local Essex at Wildfell Habitat Bank*

The Tree Council

EverCare allows Ground Control employees to use 2 days a year to volunteer for projects and causes that resonate with them. During National Tree Week, volunteers used these days to support projects that included:

The Fruitworks Cooperative, a social enterprise supporting local people to plant and care for fruit trees, where volunteers lifted, prepared and dispatched fruit trees grown in their onsite community tree nursery. Volunteers also learnt about the process of growing fruit trees for sustainable community fruit production and the co-operative’s wider food growing initiative.
Springfield Park, an important community green space in the London borough of Hackney, which has been awarded a Green Flag in recognition of its impressive gardens and wildlife. Volunteers from Ground Control joined The Tree Council and the Hackney Parks team planting of hedgerow whips across two green spaces. Volunteers also learnt more about the history of the park and the biodiversity and wildlife on-site.

The week also saw the publication of ‘Ready, set plant’, a new Forestry Commission featuring Chris Bawtree, Nature Recovery Director, sharing how Ground Control are creating large-scale woodland creation. Available to read here.

On the back of a successful National Tree Week, Chris Bawtree commented:

It’s great to have volunteers at Wildfell taking part in National Tree Week. From our own teams to groups like B Local, it’s fantastic to see people getting their hands dirty planting trees and learning about the importance of sites like Wildfell.