![](https://sigbi.org/southern-england/files/2022/03/President-Julie-Blackwell-Dane-Brewer-and-Liz-Batten-planting-elms-768x400.jpg)
Trees bring a new lease of life to the South Downs
Trees Bring a New Lease of Life to the South Downs As the warmth of spring sunshine bathes the South Downs, thousands of new life-giving trees are sprouting up from the soil. It’s been a busy few months because well over 11,000 trees have been planted across the region – on top of 10,000 trees planted during the previous winter. Now the inspiring initiative, called “Trees for The Downs”, is putting out the call for new applications for even more tree planting in 2022. SI Southern England was successful in fulfilling one of those applications by donating £900 to plant 100 trees for the SI centenary. SISE President Julie Blackwell and SI Salisbury member Liz Batten went along to the planting. A hundred trees were planted at Longmoor Military Training Estate, near Liss, as part of a joint initiative with Soroptimist International, a global women’s