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**A tree planting scheme has received £8.7m of government funding to expand the project as organisers celebrate planting more than two million trees. **

The Forest for Cornwall scheme started in 2019 in a bid to help the county respond to climate change.

Cornwall Council said the money should help the authority reach its target of 8,000 hectares (19,768 acres) of "new tree canopy by 2035".

The project has included tree planting in communities, farms, schools and streets across Cornwall. Bosses said the scheme was designed to help England reach the target of 16.5% canopy and woodland cover by 2050.

Loic Rich, Cornwall's cabinet member for environment and climate change, said the Forest for Cornwall "enhances our local landscape, towns and villages, bringing the beauty and benefits of trees to our doorsteps to improve our health and happiness, providing much-needed shade during this prolonged period of heat".

He said it helped farmers increase farm resilience and helped wildlife "by providing homes for birds, mammals and insects, helping keep our rivers and streams clean and cool, reducing run-off, and improving the health of our soils".

He added increased tree cover helped "reduce flooding in coastal towns and building resilience to a changing climate".

The latest grant from Defra's Trees Programme comes after hundreds of trees were destroyed in January when Storm Goretti brought gusts of up to 100mph (160km/h).

It brought down mature trees at St Michael's Mount near Penzance and Trewithen in Truro.

Ben Thomas, from Treveddoe Farm near Cardinham, has planted 2,500 trees.

He said: "Without the knowledge, contacts and funding it would have been hard to find the time to get the project started.

"In the end we have ended up with a brilliant agroforestry, external network on the farm which is already delivering."

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