A Jubilee Wood of 6,000 new trees to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be planted, creating new public footpaths and improving existing ones.

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The three hectare site (7.4 acres), is alongside Harpford Wood, near Newton Poppleford, and will see 6,000 Douglas fir and ash saplings planted by East Budleigh-based landowner Clinton Devon Estates (CDE).

The project will be part funded by the Forestry Commission.

Although the woodland will not be mature for 80 years, the public access routes will be open this year and will join the 40-mile East Devon Way with footpath number 12 at Newton Poppleford.

John Wilding, head of forestry at Clinton Devon Estates, said: “When we begin planting, we will be encouraging local people and especially schoolchildren to join us.

“The new permissive links through the plantation will extend a network of open pedestrian access within Harpford Woods and provide an easier link between the East Devon Way and the old railway line between Bowd and Tipton.”

He said Douglas fir and ash had been chosen because native hardwoods like oak and beech attract large numbers of squirrels and destroy the trees. Douglas firs are also resistant to the tree disease phytophthora, which has blighted much of CDE’s woodland.

Beech and oak can be found in the neighbouring Harpford Wood that dates back to the 1800s.

The new Jubilee Wood will be registered with the Woodland Carbon Code a government backed voluntary scheme where woodland is planted encourging to absorb damaging greenhouse gases.