Since 2022, we’ve partnered with the Woodland Trust at its ambitious habitat restoration project at Snaizeholme, in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.
We’ve funded the planting of up to 50,000 native trees over the course of this five-year partnership. This will create open woodland glades to provide shelter and food for wildlife, alongside denser groves, where plants that thrive in woodlands will flourish.
Since April 2023, 290 hectares (719 acres) have been planted with a mixture of trees. Species planted so far include Scots pine, aspen, birch and alder. As the trees grow, they’ll absorb carbon and help improve the water quality of the local beck.
The trees will also slow the flow of the 21 streams that run down the over-grazed slopes into Snaizeholme Beck, helping to reduce flood risk within the immediate area and further downstream in towns and cities like York, where many of our colleagues and customers live and work.
Upland peat restoration is central to the habitat recovery work at Snaizeholme. By restoring degraded peat, the project helps support native plants and wildlife to thrive, locks away carbon, and reduces flood risk downstream. In spring 2025, the Woodland Trust team completed restoration across 80 hectares of peatland, and the team can already see the positive effects, with dragonflies and other insects returning to the standing water created by newly built peat dams.
Image courtesy of the Woodland Trust
Image courtesy of the Woodland Trust
Image courtesy of the Woodland Trust
The hope is that this project will also be used as an example of how we can combat the climate and nature crisis we’re facing. Research teams from the University of Leeds and the University of York are undertaking regular monitoring and research at Snaizeholme, analysing the impact the tree planting and the habitat restoration is having on the soil, water quality and flow rates, and any effects on biodiversity.
Different types of wildlife have also been spotted at the site, including a variety of bird species like curlew, red grouse, lapwings and barn owls.
Curlew, John Bridges/WTML
Little owl, Kathy Ward /WTML
By investing in this important biodiversity project on our doorstep, it also gives our people the opportunity to get stuck in. In 2025, over 40 volunteers from across the Group dedicated four days to removing fencing, collectively dismantling over 800 metres. Their efforts are helping to open up the landscape, creating space for wildlife and supporting the long‑term restoration of this special environment.
You can read more about recent developments at Snaizeholme in the latest Impact Report published by the Woodland Trust.
