More than 100 shovel-wielding nature lovers dug for victory in Northern Ireland today as they broke the world record for the most number of trees planted in an hour.
The band of conservationists, which included Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle, managed to plant 26,422 trees in the horticultural challenge on the banks of the River Foyle near the singer’s hometown of Derry.
Verified by Guinness adjudicators, the marathon effort at Gransha Park beat the previous record by more than 8,000.
The Derry team, which was organised by the Conservation Volunteers, were up against two rival record attempts in England as part of the BBC’s Breathing Places Tree O’Clock campaign.
But the simultaneous bids in Essex and Hertfordshire fell just short, planting 20,312 and 20,326 respectively.
There were also smaller scale efforts undertaken all across the UK, including one at the home of the Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont.
Sue Holden, chief executive of the Woodland Trust thanked all those who took part. “As part of Tree O’Clock the Woodland Trust will have planted over 70,000 trees across the UK today, enough trees to cover 5,000 football pitches,” she said.
“This figure, combined with all the hundreds of thousands of other trees planted by individuals at many sites and in back gardens, will go on having lasting benefits for native wildlife, for people and our environment for generations to come.
“We have achieved all of this in just one hour - if we can do all this in 60 minutes, imagine what we can do together in the future. Today is just the start of a great journey to a better future for all of us.”
PA