Tree & Leaf

New landsmarks

From the world's largest seed bank to 'Landmarks' over 2000 years old, Royal Mail of Great Britain features four millennium projects which safeguard and regenerate one of the most crucial natural resources.
'Tree & Leaf' is presented in presentation packs on August 1, is the eighth set of Royal Mail's Year 2000 Millennium Collection and consists of stamps numbered 29 to 32.

Yews for the millennium (2nd class)

Already 7000 parishes throughout the country have received a tree propagated from Ancient Yews, which are at least 2000 years old. The conservation Foundation has been recording yew trees throughout the UK to highlight the age of ancient trees and encourage their protection.

Eden Project / St. Austell (1st class)

Biomes are, in layman's terms, giant conservatories and they will form part of the Eden Project, which is depicted on this stamp.
Cited in a redundant china clay quarry, 60m deep and covering 34 acres, the area is being transformed to house the two biomes which will recreating climates of the humid tropics and warm temperature regions.

Millennium Seed Bank / Ardingly (45p)

The Millennium Seed Bank was conceived at the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992, to recognise the links between bio-diversity conservation and sustainable development. Seed banking is relatively new. The aim of a seed bank is not to replace wild populations, but to act as an insurance policy. Even the best-protected nature reserve cannot always guarantee a plant's safety, but plant seeds can be kept safely for hundreds of years in a seed bank.

The Forest for Scotland (65p)

The colour and beauty of Scotland's native woodlands is unrivalled, as is the number of plants, animals and insects they support. The barren hillsides, now thought of as typical Scottish scenery, were once covered by native woods, with their wonderful subtle textures and colours of green, gold, russet and brown. But over the years, these woodlands were cleared of fell out of management, so that today very little remains.
The Forest of Scotland is building on the work, which started in the late 1980s to restore and regenerate the country's depleted native woodland resource.

More information

Stamps United Kingdom
Postage Stamps 2000