Gransha Park

On Saturday 5th December Conservation Volunteers smashed the world record for the most trees planted in one hour in one location as part of BBC Tree O'Clock. Ivan Black led the Derry team made up of Conservation Volunteers, families, schools, rugby players and rowers. With 90 planters and 20 helpers 26,422 trees were planted in the hour.
The site of the new woodland is at Gransha Park in Derry not far from the ancient Gransha woodland. Ivan planted 4,000 oak saplings on the day - many gathered as acorns from Gransha. Now the baby oaks have come home to form the heart of this new woodland.

The day started before dawn as CVNI rushed to lay out trees the length of the 15 acre site ready for the volunteers who would plant them. Once Derry born singing star Nadine Coyle counted down and the horn sounded - the planting began. An average of one tree was planted every 7.3 seconds by each of the 90 strong team.

At noon the weary planters made their way to Gransha Woods for a cup of soup and the nail-biting wait to see if they had planted enough trees in that special hour to break the record. Our Breathing Places choir sang to keep the spirits up and Nadine Coyle joined them on stage to give the crowd the news they were waiting for. The Derry team beat the world record previously held by Scotland by more than 8,000 trees to secure the new title of World Tree Planting Record Breakers!