A Thames Valley project is raising money to plant rare black poplars
About 50 black poplars are on record in Oxfordshire. A Swindon-to-Oxford effort wants DNA tests, cuttings, and new trees. The cuttings are not in the ground yet.
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A project stretching from Swindon to Oxford is trying to raise £20,000 to test, propagate, and plant black poplars along the Thames. The BBC reported the appeal on October 24, 2026. Catrina Bass of the Long Mead Foundation in Swindon said about 50 black poplars are recorded in Oxfordshire. The money would pay for DNA analysis, cuttings, and planting. The trees are not in the ground yet, and the fundraising is not finished.
Oxfordshire County Council has said its Local Nature Recovery Strategy will match up to £10,000. Benjamin Heaven Taylor of the Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment said black poplars hold water on floodplains and that the remaining trees are too scattered to keep the population healthy on their own. The news, for now, is a funded plan taking shape, not a planting day already completed.
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