Ham Hill's tree planting project

Tree O'Clock is a national event taking place on Saturday, 5 December

Ham Hill is taking part in this year's BBC Breathing Places campaign.

Staff at the country park will aim to plant 500 trees in the space of one hour but need further sponsorship and volunteers to help with the planting on the day.

So far, £2,000 has been raised but more is needed to cover the cost of the trees, stakes and the protective guards.

It is hoped 500 volunteers will join in so they each have a tree to plant.

The tree planting event is part of the national Breathing Places campaign called Tree O'Clock which celebrates the role trees play in nature.

The other aim is to break the Guinness World Record of 653,143 trees planted in the space of one hour.

Grace Hall, education officer at Ham Hill Country Park, said: "It's going to be quite a challenging event.

"Our whole countryside team and our volunteer ranger team and Friends of Ham Hill will all there on the day getting everything organised, because hopefully we will have 500 people so they can plant a tree each."

All the trees supplied will be native to the local area.

"Each tree costs £4 because they're a substantial size, because of the deer and the other animals that like to eat them and we need a stake and guard to protect them, and we're looking for sponsorship to help us out," said Grace.

The Tree O'Clock event will take place on Saturday, 5 December, 2009 from 11am until 12pm at Ham Hill Country Park, near Yeovil.