Thousands of green-fingered residents are helping to tackle climate change by accepting free trees from Hertfordshire's Your Tree Our Future scheme.

More than 4,300 people arranged to collect over 74,000 trees at 12 pick-up points across the county on Saturday, December 9.

The trees are made of species selected for their suitability to Herts' geography and climate, and more than 58,000 of them will go on to form nearly 10km of hedgerow, which has positive benefits for wildlife.

If the trees reach full maturity, they could take close to 125,000 tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere.

The giveaway has been delivered by a partnership between Herts County Council, the county's district and borough councils and charity Growing People.

Herts FullStop provided its facilities and logistical expertise to help prepare and deliver the trees to the relevant pick-up points across the country.

Councillor Eric Buckmaster, executive member for the environment at Hertfordshire County Council, said: "We are thrilled that the Your Tree Our Future scheme continues to go from strength-to-strength, with an additional 27,000 trees given away this year compared to last year’s total.

"The fact that so many residents from across Hertfordshire have taken part in this scheme is a testament to the positive benefits of trees on the physical and mental wellbeing of our communities, as well as for our environment.

"We have already delivered more than the 100,000 trees we planned at the start of this project and look forward to next year when we hope even more residents will take part."

Next year's scheme will open in summer 2024.

The tree giveaway is one of the ways the council hopes to deliver on its Tree and Woodland Strategy, which outlines plans to plant 1.8 million new trees in Herts by 2030.

With the plan adopted in 2022, the council has already helped establish 213,473 trees since declaring a climate emergency.

This has been achieved in part through appointing two dedicated woodland creation officers, delivering planting schemes including 600 trees at Aldenham County Park, 1,780 at Hornbeam Wood Hedgehog Sanctuary and 10,000 in Abbots Langley in partnership with Watford Community Housing Trust.