Conservation charity offers environmentally-friendly wedding gifts for 2009
Press Release 2009
Contact: Kerrigan Bell. Telephone 01309 691292; Email marketing@treesforlife.org.uk.
Photograph available (please credit Beverly Foster Photography): James and Caroline Allen on their wedding day.
 One of the special gift envelopes that come in our new Wedding Grove Packs. |
Couples getting married during 2009 are being encouraged to celebrate their wedding day with a specially-dedicated Grove of native trees, planted in Scotland’s Caledonian Forest by award-winning conservation charity Trees for Life.
By choosing this environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional gifts, couples can help Trees for Life achieve its goal of planting a quarter of a million trees by the end of the year.
Recently-married couple Caroline and James Allen from Staffordshire have set up a Wedding Grove. Caroline said: “We already have all we need in the way of toasters, so we thought a grove was a great way to get people to donate a tree – or more!
“Not only will this help to keep the Highlands of Scotland the way they should be, the trees will eventually compensate for some of the energy used by our guests travelling to and celebrating our wedding. We hope that this small but positive environmental action will be part of our legacy and help to reduce any inevitable carbon emissions generated by our wedding day.”
Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life’s Executive Director, says: “Our Wedding Groves are a long-lasting symbol of a marriage and also allow couples to make a positive contribution to the environment. Every tree will help soak up carbon dioxide and will help create a valuable wildlife habitat. It’s a wonderful way to mark your big day.”
The charity’s new wedding pack makes it easy for couples to start their own Wedding Grove. The pack includes attractive pledge envelopes which allow wedding guests to dedicate trees to the Grove with personalised messages.
A Wedding Grove costs just £50 to set up, which includes the first eight trees. Each additional tree costs £5. Once the Grove is created, couples receive a frameable wedding gift certificate and their own page on the Trees for Life website, complete with a photo of their choice.
Trees for Life’s drive to plant 250,000 new native trees during 2008 and 2009 is the charity’s pledge to the United Nations’ Billion Trees Campaign – a global push to tackle climate change through the planting of seven billion trees worldwide.
The Caledonian Forest once covered much of the Scottish Highlands. Today only one per cent of the original forest survives. (See Our Vision.)
For more information or to support Trees for Life call 0845 458 3506, email info@treesforlife.org.uk
Ends
Notes to editors
- Trees for Life is a pioneering charity in ecological restoration. It aims to restore the Caledonian Forest to an area of 1,500 square kilometres in the Highlands west of Inverness. Today only 1% of the original Caledonian Forest remains.
- Since planting its first trees in 1991 in Glen Affric, Trees for Life has planted over 800,000 trees. Its awards include 1991 UK Conservation Project of the Year, the Millennium Marque in 2000 and Top 10 Conservation Holidays worldwide (in 2009).
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If you have found the information on this page and/or website useful please consider making a donation, for example to our current appeal and/or becoming a member of Trees for Life, to help us further our work of restoring the Caledonian Forest. You can join or make a donation on-line via our secure server if you like, or contact Trees for Life by post, phone or email at the address below.
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Last updated: 25 August 2010