The Woodland Trust has announced that the new 850-acre (344-hectare) native woodland in Hertfordshire is to be called Heartwood Forest.

Plans to create Britain's largest new continuous forest were unveiled by the trust at the end of July, with more than 600,000 native broadleaf trees set to be planted on the site near Sandridge. Although the land on which the forest will be created has already been acquired at the start of October, the Woodland Trust has said that it will be continuing with an £8.5m appeal to raise the necessary funds to start the planting process, as well as managing the site for the next five years.

Toby Bancroft, project manager, said: "We opened up several pathways through Heartwood Forest across 170 acres (69 hectares) as soon as we got the keys to the site four weeks ago, as the rest is still under cultivation."