Heartwood Forest is a planned Forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 (Woodland creation site) in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

The plans were set out in 2008 by The Woodland Trust to create the largest new forest of native tree species of approximately 347+ Ha

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 (850 acres) in size, and is expected to take around 12 years.

The site, near Sandridge

Sandridge

Sandridge is a small village and civil parish between St Albans and Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom.-Early history:...

, St Albans

St Albans

St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...

 in the Metropolitan Green Belt

Metropolitan Green Belt

The Metropolitan Green Belt is a statutory green belt around London, England. It includes designated parts of Greater London and the surrounding counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey in the South East and East of England regions.-History:The...

, was formerly agricultural land, but also currently contains around 18 Ha (45 acres) of remaining ancient woodland

Ancient woodland

Ancient woodland is a term used in the United Kingdom to refer specifically to woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England and Wales . Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in 1600 was likely to have developed naturally...

, which will be integrated into the new woodland.

On December 9, 2009, a Guinness World Record attempt was made for the 'BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Tree O'clock ' scheme, in association with the Woodland Trust to plant the most new trees as possible in one hour, with three woodland sites making the attempt, the Heartwood Forest, Hainault Forest and Gransha Park. The previous record being 18,124 which was held by the Forestry Commission

Forestry Commission

The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in Great Britain. Its mission is to protect and expand Britain's forests and woodlands and increase their value to society and the environment....

at a site in Scotland. The Heartwood Forest site managed to come second, with 20,326, being beaten by Gransha Park where they planted over 26,000 trees in the hour