The government plans to plant 30,000 hectares of trees each year by 2025. But how practical is it and what would the real impact be? Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to Dr Julie Urquhart of the University of Gloucestershire about why we need more information about carbon capture to help select the best places and the best tree species to plant. William Macalpine is based at Rothamsted – his project explores how cutting back and coppicing willows as a crop encourages a rapid growth cycle and replenishment. His presentation Willow Power at the 2008 Chelsea Flower show demonstrated the versatility of willow and the number of varieties. He argues we need longer term funding and to break the 5 year funding cycle for farmers, and researchers.

Dr Julie Urquhart is Associate Professor of Environmental Social Science at the University of Gloucestershire. She’s an ambassador for the Future of UK Treescapes programme, a collaboration funded by UK Research and Innovation, the Scottish and Welsh government and DEFRA.

William Macalpine is a willow breeder at Rothamsted Research, looking at shrub willows as a sustainable energy source. He is also a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal winner, for a display entitled ‘Willow Power’.

You can find out more about William Macalpine here: https://repository.rothamsted.ac.uk/staff/841w0/william-macalpine&resultMode=3 and the National Willow collection here https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/uk-national-willow-collection

You can find more information about the Treescapes projects here: https://nerc.ukri.org/research/funded/programmes/future-of-uk-treescapes/

Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Durham.

The podcast series Green Thinking is 26 episodes 26 minutes long looking at issues relating to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. It explores the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough are in conversation with researchers about a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.

The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on mushrooms, forests, rivers, eco-criticism and soil. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2

For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: Responding to climate change – UKRI or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast.

Producer: Ruth Watts