Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest will be at the heart of England and with a central position between the National Forest and the Greenwood Community Forest in Nottinghamshire. It will provide the missing link in joining up community forests in the surrounding area.

It won’t be a single ‘forest’ covering an area, but the collection of many trees, woodlands and hedgerows across the eastern and southern fringes of Derbyshire. The area includes many of the urban settlements of Derbyshire where 77% of the county’s population of 797,000 people live and where better access to woodland is most needed.  It is also an area rich in industrial mining heritage that has shaped the current landscape. The Forest will continue to enhance the schemes of physical restoration that are already underway.