A local youth group has teamed up with the Woodland Trust to plant thousands of trees.

More than 400 volunteers from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association joined with volunteers from across Hertfordshire to plant 15,000 trees at Heartwood Forest, in Sandridge.

Heartwood Forest is the Woodland Trust’s flagship site in Hertfordshire where the charity is creating the largest new native woodland in England.

The charity is hoping to plant 600,000 trees to complete this task and all of them will be planted by willing volunteers. To date nearly 400,000 trees have been planted since 2009.

John Brown, regional development officer for the Woodland Trust said: "It was brilliant to see so many people working together to plant trees at Heartwood, all the volunteers worked incredibly hard to plant such a huge number of trees.

"We have so little woodland in England that the creation of Heartwood Forest will make a real difference in the long term, particularly for wildlife in the area."

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Umair Ahmad, a local AMYA youth leader and volunteer on the day said: "Everyone here is amazed at the thought that the trees we are planting will one day become part of the beautiful local landscape.

''Islam places great emphasis on taking care of the environment and particularly on the planting of trees. We will certainly be encouraging our members to continue supporting the fantastic work being done by the Woodland Trust in the future.''