Environmental volunteers are being thanked for ensuring the freezing cold winter was not a barren one for the Forest of Bradford.

With the help of people who gave up their time for planting sessions, some 33,000 new trees have been planted at 30 different sites across the district, including at schools, on farmland and in open, public space, between November and March. If they had been planted together, the trees would have covered the size of 18 football pitches.

Project manager Ian Butterfield was at a planting site off Scholes Lane, near Oakworth, Keighley, yesterday where five trees were being planted by hotel managers who have backed the winter efforts.

The Ibis hotels in Shipley, Leeds and Hull, and the Etap hotels in Bradford and Leeds, have each provided donations to pay for 500 trees.

Mr Butterfield said: “We have planted 3,000 more trees than we would over winter in an average year and that, in the main part, is down to the volunteers. I want to say a big thank-you to everyone who helped.”

The project was set up in 1998 with the aim of establishing a sustainable wooded landscape in both rural and urban areas of the district.

Since then, the Bradford Environmental Action Trust project has planted more than 385,000 broad-leaved trees at over 300 different sites in partnership with a wide, cross-section of the community. It is run by Mr Butterfield and project officer Colin Brooks, and in the last year they received substantial funds to continue their work from the Green Infrastructure Programme, run by partner organisation, the White Rose Forest, as well as from the Area Co-ordinator’s Offices in Shipley and Keighley.

The scheme aims to increase woodland cover in Bradford to around the national average. To reach that level, trees need to planted to cover another 290 hectares. At an average of 30,000 trees planted a year, the project could be completed in the next ten to 15 years.

Anyone who wishes to volunteer for sessions organised on Wednesdays, which involve maintaining existing woodland sites over the summer, can contact (01274) 253440 or go to beat.org. uk/bm/forest_of_bradford