Celebrating our Founding Volunteer Vhari!

Creating Nature’s Corridors is a registered charity created by Vhari Russell to improve our planet for generations to come and its mission is to plant 10,000 trees and hedging plants per year.

Vhari Russell founded the charity as a lasting legacy to her brother who died aged 37 from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome. Vhari felt passionately that the country needs to take immediate action to address the growing loss of our natural landscape and the problems that this represents in terms of the negative impact on the environment and the detrimental effect, socially and emotionally, on local communities. 

Creating Nature’s Corridors is committed to communicating the advantages of spending time in the great outdoors and getting closer to nature - an experience which brings well documented lasting positive benefits to emotional health and wellbeing.

"I am a firm believer in playing a part in leaving the planet in a better place than when I arrived on it and through the charity I really feel that I can help achieve that. During these times when mental health is such a priority I believe that we need to spend more time in nature. The fact is, as we help to heal it, it heals us." Vhari Russell.

This year alone, Creating Nature’s Corridors has worked on 16 projects with over 160 volunteers from various community groups including local Guiding and Scouting communities. A key part of the charity’s vision is to educate the next generation on the increasing importance of improving our environment and protecting the natural landscape for future generations. 

Our strategy was to map out the areas of the country that were most at risk of losing access to natural woodland. We started our work in Cambridgeshire which represents the least wooded county in the country. Since then we identified locations where there is a genuine need to plant to ensure communities have direct access to woodland areas. 

Over the last planting season (Oct 23-Mar 24) we have planted 20,029 trees and hedging at various locations in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Kent, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Pembrokeshire and Norfolk.

Planting at four schools across Pembrokeshire and Cambridgeshire provides the perfect opportunity to educate young people - the future custodians of our planet - on the importance of retaining the natural landscape and protecting local flora and fauna.

Creating Nature’s Corridors has just completed its biggest planting to date - 10,000 trees and hedging plants at Huntingdon Racecourse!

The charity is in discussions with another site to plant 75,000 over three years and there are supporters already in place keen to get involved. 

The charity has outperformed against its original annual target of 10,000 trees during the last planting season and is proud to have been able to plant 20,029 trees and hedging. This takes the total numbers planted to 30,171 in the three years since the charity’s inception in 2021. In addition, 7.5 KM of hedgerows have been planted since which increases the opportunity for bio-diversity and new habitats for nature.

Planting 7.5 km of new hedgerows and a total of 30,171 trees since the charity’s inception will have a number of benefits to local communities.

●     boost the ecology / biodiversity in the areas where planting has taken place

●     reduce the risk of flooding in key areas

●     provide local communicates with access to nature and the associated emotional / social benefits of being exposed to the natural environment

●     educate local communities on the important of protecting the local environment / trigger loyalty to the cause

●     we hope to have been able to help get people into the great outdoors and therefore improving mental health and wellbeing.

Vhari manages the day to day running of the charity and all the planting schedules alongside running a successful marketing agency and being a busy mum of three.

The charity has a dedicated team of volunteers who regularly join us in tree planting at various locations

We are so proud to have been able to smash our target this year, doubling the original figure set. We feel this is an amazing achievement for such a small charity in a relatively short time frame.

We hope to continue and smash this target year on year with our amazing team of dedicated volunteers behind us!