In terms of climate change, Mr Brockington said having a variety of species means, if one is susceptible to disease, a significant number of trees will not be lost.
“We are looking at western France, because it’s a very similar climate to what we could expect in our country in 40 to 50 years’ time, which would be when these trees are reaching maturity,” he added.
“So we need to be thinking about which trees might be drought susceptible or resilient.”
A central area of the site will be left as pasture, which will be grazed by cattle during the winter, and it is hoped all 120,000 trees will be in the ground by the end of March.