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A scheme by one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs to reforest the heart of England planted its millionth tree.
Poet and publisher Felix Dennis said he was proud to have planted the first 10% of his ambitious vision. "I'm hoping that long after I'm dead that the charity I founded will one day be the proud possessor of 25,000 acres of woodland planted with 10 million native broadleafed trees, completely open to the public," he said.
Dennis, founder of the eponymous publishing company who was diagnosed with throat cancer last year, planted an oak sapling at a ceremony attended by hundreds of local residents, council members, forestry officials and employees on Friday, and read aloud from one of his poems which contains the line: "Whosoever plants a tree/ Winks at immortality."
The project, founded in 2011, is a partnership between Dennis and the Heart of England Forest charity, which aims to plant and preserve a large native broadleaf forest in South Warwickshire, stretching from the ancient borders of the Forest of Arden – also known as Shakespeare's Forest – south to the Vale of Evesham.
To date, 2,500 acres of land has been purchased and planted with 1 million native broadleaf saplings – about the size of seven Hyde Parks in London – at a rate of approximately 300 acres a year, making it the world's largest privately planted forest.
Major species include the English oak and ash, along with the sessile oak, birch, small leaved lime, field maple, cherry, hornbeam, aspen, sweet chestnut, rowan, whitebeam and willow. The project recently established its own tree nursery.
Dennis said his work was necessary because the UK was so denuded of native trees. "France, Germany and Italy have approximately 25% of native high-tree cover. In parts of England, we're lucky if we've got 1.5%. Britain has the lowest percentage of native adult trees of any country in Europe expect for Ireland and Iceland. We're so far down the league table you can't even see us."
Dennis, who began planting in the 1990s with a small wood near Dorsington, Warwickshire, announced last September that he would leave 80% of his £500m fortune to the charity after his death.
He intends the money to be used to expand the forest to 25,000 acres, planted with 10 million trees and made public, "to create a connected series of woods so extensive that it will form one of the largest forests in England".
He wants the forest to host a range of activities, such as traditional woodland crafts, coppice and charcoal production, a green burial and memorial site, camping, recreation and equestrian pursuits, birdwatching, tree-top walkways and a visitor's hub with an education and arts centre. A substantial portion will be retained as farmland.
The charity recently made its first purchase of existing woodland, buying 186 acres of mostly conifer trees called Coughton Park Wood. These are being felled in stages and converted to a native broadleafed woodland with bluebells.
The forest is already providing a habitat for rare species, with 34 captive-bred hazel dormice released into Heart of England Forest woodland as part of a reintroduction project last June.
"I really do love watching the land change with the amount of wildlife that arrives," said Dennis. "Once it become organic and you put trees back in the ground it back comes so quickly. We're not just talking about deer and badgers, but worms, beetles, lichen and butterflies. We've set up hives for honey and bumblebees and created glades and scrapes for wading birds, and rides so they can fly right up the middle of the forest."
The charity at present has no full-time staff, so Dennis personally employs a head forester, estate manager, bookkeepers and other estate and private office employees.
Members of the public can sponsor a sapling, and corporate supporters including Waitrose and the National Grid are able to boost their corporate social responsibility credentials by creating and naming new woodlands and hosting corporate or public relations events within the forest.
Dennis is considered to be one of Britain's most successful self-made entrepreneurs, ranked 173rd in the 2013 Sunday Times "rich list" with a fortune of £500m. His business, Dennis Publishing, produces more than 50 magazines, websites and mobile sites, including The Week, Men's Fitness, evo, Auto Express, PC Pro, Octane and Viz.
In his book How to Get Rich, he admitted to spending more than $100m on drugs and women. As one of the publishers of the infamous 1960s underground magazine Oz, he was charged (and later acquitted) with "conspiracy to deprave and corrupt the morals of the young of the realm".
In 2001, Dennis took up poetry after a serious illness. He has gone on to publish six best-selling poetry collections and books such as Tales From The Woods, "a hymn of praise to trees and the English countryside". He tours widely, with all proceeds donated to the Heart of England Forest Project charity. Dennis plans to carve one of his poems into a 30-tonne boulder, and then drop it into the forest via cargo helicopter.
Today's ceremony had to be delayed because of illness. Dennis was helped to plant the tree by his friend, the wine writer Hugh Johnson, who has also written a book on trees.
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