Last week, our colleagues from PEFC Norway were thrilled to join the traditional felling ceremony for the tree which will soon take centre stage in Trafalgar Square. The ceremony was attended by the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Andrew Smith, who with the Mayor of Oslo, Marianne Borgen and local school children, helped to fell the tree. The tree is a gift from the people of Norway to the people of London to thank them for their support in WWII. It stands as a symbol of long-standing friendship and international cooperation with Norway.
The 23 metre Norwegian Spruce tree is around 80 years old and was sourced from a PEFC certified forest in Maridalen, Oslo. Harvesting the tree from a PEFC-certified forest from means that it has been sustainably managed, providing assurances that the products sourced from it are responsibly sourced. PEFC is a global alliance of national forest certification systems which now account for over 330 million hectares of certified forests across 49 countries, making it the world’s largest forest certification system.
The annual lighting up ceremony will take place in Trafalgar Square on Thursday 2nd December. It will be the first since 2019, as last year’s was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tree will remain in Trafalgar Square until just before Twelfth Night, when it will be taken down and recycled.
Check out this video if you’d like to know more about this very special tree and you can follow the tree’s progress on its Twitter account @trafalgartree