The Arsenal Forest is set to expand this season, with a second forest to be planted soon. With our 37-acre site full of 39,000 trees in Kenya, it’s all hands to the pump clearing our neighbouring second plot – and it’s back-breaking work.
As in the original plot, this land would once have been heavily forested but years of charcoal-burning and over-grazing borne of poverty have resulted in this thorny scrub that gives little benefit to man or beast.
The main type of plant that needs clearing is known as sickle bush (dichrostachys cinerea), which is an invasive species over much of coastal East Africa. It has very long thorns that even the local goats find difficult to chew on and can grow into almost impenetrable thickets. It gives little shade or edible forage and its only really got one good use and that is as a temporary fence to deter marauding cattle from eating baby tree seedlings.
But our team are experienced and work fast – the site has now been cleared and hopefully we’ll be planing neem seedlings in a couple of months’ time.
It’s a horrible job clearing the spiteful sickle bush – but we have just the team to do it. And check out the Arsenal shirts among the workforce!
The BGU – a great team!
We recently sent a selection of our fantastic Africa-inspired away kit to Bore, where it was modelled by members of the Bore Green Umbrella.
The BGU is the workers’ collective that implements the Arsenal Forest project. Their job is to ensure that the trees are well cared for, that the employment created by the initiative is fairly shared out among all sectors of the community and that, long-term, the benefits that will come from the harvesting of the trees’ timber will accrue to the wider population of Bore.
Here, 11 members of their management committee are pictured at the newly cleared second Arsenal Forest planting site, thrilled with their new kit. From left to right (below) we have: Amina John, Anderson Sulubu, Martin Mwarogo, Tneophrastus Kithunga, William Katana, Mbarak Omari Mthengo, Lakheri Kivure, Joseph Kwicha, Francis Mranja, Luci James and Kasichana Kazungu.
We will bring you more on the second Arsenal Forest as the seedlings are planted.
The Bore workers’ collective model a selection of our Africa-themed kit that arrived for them recently
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
