YOUR TREE. YOUR LEGACY
From One Tree to a Living Legacy
When you plant a tree with Gift a Tree, you’re doing far more than putting a tree in the ground.
You’re creating something that can grow for decades — perhaps centuries — providing habitat, supporting biodiversity, capturing carbon and becoming part of a landscape that future generations may one day enjoy.
It starts with one tree. But its story has only just begun.
PLANTING IS JUST THE BEGINNING
A Tree Changes as It Grows. So Does Its Impact.
A newly planted tree may look small, but beneath the surface something remarkable has already started.
Its roots begin establishing themselves in the soil. New growth appears. Insects discover it. Birds may use it for shelter. As the years pass, the tree becomes larger, stronger and increasingly connected to the landscape around it.
What begins as a sapling can eventually become an entire habitat.
THE EARLY YEARS
A young tree begins establishing its root system and adapting to its surroundings.
These first years are incredibly important, which is why we do everything reasonably possible to help our newly planted trees establish successfully.
AS THE TREE GROWS
Branches spread, leaves multiply and the tree begins providing increasing amounts of shelter, shade and habitat.
Insects, birds and other wildlife can all benefit as the tree becomes part of the surrounding ecosystem.
FOR GENERATIONS TO COME
Given the right conditions, a tree can outlive the person who planted it by generations.
Its greatest contribution may happen long after we’re gone.
THE RIPPLE EFFECT
One Tree Can Do More Than You Might Imagine
It’s easy to think about tree planting purely in terms of carbon. But trees can contribute to healthy landscapes in many different ways.
CARBON
As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store carbon within their wood, roots and surrounding ecosystem.
WILDLIFE
Leaves, flowers, fruit, bark and branches can provide food and habitat for an extraordinary variety of life.
SOIL & WATER
Tree roots help bind soil, while trees and vegetation can slow rainfall, improve infiltration and contribute to healthier landscapes.
FUTURE GENERATIONS
Perhaps the hardest benefit to measure is also one of the most important.
A tree planted today is a gift to people we’ll never meet.
A GROWING IMPACT
From Our Nature Reserve in Devon to Tree Planting in Tanzania
Gift a Tree began with a simple desire to create more space for nature here in Devon.
Today, that idea has grown much further.
Alongside our work in the UK, Gift a Tree supports tree planting in Tanzania, helping restore landscapes while creating wider benefits for local communities.
It means our work can operate on two very different scales:
Here in Devon, we can care for individual trees and habitats and watch nature respond.
In Tanzania, we can help support tree planting on a much larger scale.
Different landscapes. Different challenges.
The same belief: planting trees can create something positive for the future.
THE POWER OF ONE
Every Tree Adds to the Story
No single tree can solve climate change.
No single pond can restore biodiversity.
And no single patch of wildflowers can repair everything we’ve lost.
But landscapes are made from individual trees, ponds, hedgerows, meadows and habitats.
And every one has to start somewhere.
That’s why we believe individual actions still matter.
One tree becomes part of a habitat.
One habitat connects with another.
And slowly, landscapes can begin to change.
WHAT WILL YOU LEAVE BEHIND?
Someone Else Could Stand Beneath Your Tree
We have an English oak at our nature reserve that is at least 500 years old.
Someone planted it — or allowed it to grow — centuries before any of us were born.
They never saw the tree I’m fortunate enough to stand beneath today.
And that’s something I often think about.
When we plant a young tree, we naturally think about what it looks like now.
Perhaps we should occasionally imagine what it could look like in 50, 100 or even 500 years.
We won’t be there to see it.
But somebody else might.
And perhaps that’s one of the greatest reasons to plant a tree.
Start Your Legacy With One Tree
Whether you’re planting in memory of someone, celebrating a special occasion, giving an unusual gift or simply wanting to do something positive for nature, every tree has the potential to become part of something much bigger.
What will your tree become?