Children from a pre-school in Bridport will help in an effort to grow hundreds of trees this year.

Pupils from St Catherine’s Pre-School will be growing up to 200 trees over the autumn and winter after taking delivery of a box of root trainers and an instruction book all in the name of Copse In A Box.

The 20-centimetre-deep root trainers are like long plant pots for trees and help the roots form a good shape. They will each be filled with peat-free compost and then be filled by the children with pop acorns, conkers, hazel nuts, chestnuts, beech and maybe even cuttings from trees such as willow and poplar.

The Bridport Tree Planting project won the box as part of the Copse In A Box scheme by Moor Trees to help groups set up Community Tree Nurseries. They applied for the box early last year and it was finally delivered last week.

The trees will be grown by the children until the end of winter at which point some will be planted at the school whilst the rest will be combined with the Bridport Tree Planting's own trees to be distributed across the area.

Co-Ordinator of Bridport Tree Planting Joe Hackett said: “We already have our own tree nursery in town, but this will add to the variety of saplings we can share as well as show that even very young people can help combat climate change.

"When children plants tree it is a magical thing because they can watch them grow as they get older."

Bridport Tree Planting has been operating for three years and provides about 1,000 trees a year to be planted in the local area.

Joe added: “We’ll be able to give away more trees to add to those we have already ordered to enhance biodiversity and help with shade, prevent flooding, and capture carbon dioxide. It’s all about the future - children’s future."

Others in Bridport Tree Planting are for the first time going to try their hand at stratifying - a more complicated tree growing technique where you put seeds in a fridge over winter - such as hawthorn, bird cherry and spindle.

Anyone wanting to take part in Bridport Tree Planting's efforts can email joe@thehacketts.uk