A forest or series of forests totalling approximately 18,500 trees to remember fallen World War One soldiers has gained strong support from community boards throughout the Coromandel.

The series of forests would create a living, growing memorial for the sacrifice of the soldiers during ‘The Great War'.

There's strong support on the Coromandel for a National WW1 Memorial Forest. Native trees would be planted to commemorate the fallen soldiers, like Kauri as seen pictured here.

It's proposed the first National WW1 Memorial Forest or Forests would consist of five individual plantings in each community board area of the Thames Coromandel District.

Each tree would commemorate soldiers in each year of the war or each of the battles and campaigns.

Potentially each board would lead and coordinate their part of the Forest by engaging with local groups, iwi, RSA's and schools to plant and care for the trees and the soldiers they memorialises.

This week Mayor Glenn Leach has been traveling the district and attending board meetings to gauge support for the concept.

'It's a fantastic idea, each community board needs to think about where there is at least 1.5 hectares of land on DOC, Council Reserve or QE2 land or land gifted to the public.

'The community boards are the glue that can link in with the schools, the local RSA's, retirees who can actually help to make this happen.”

TCDC hopes to begin planting on ANZAC Day of next year with the 'Gallipoli Grove” to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings.

Initially 100 trees would be planted and eventually grow to a memorial forest of 2779 native trees - one for each fallen Kiwi soldiers in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

There will be a three-year time period for different memorial forests to be established throughout the Coromandel to mark a different campaign or battle from WW1.

The aim is to complete planting in 2018 and celebrate the Memorial Forest at a ceremony on November 11 - the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1.

Destination Coromandel chief executive Chris Adams says we are blessed with some of the largest, longest lived and 'most magnificent living things on earth – our iconic native trees”.

Totara, Rimu, Puriri and Kauri can grow not only to huge size, but all are capable of living for 2000 or more years, he says.

'The oldest war memorial in the UK – All Souls College in Oxford built in 1438 – is barely one quarter of that age.”

'These iconic native trees are also in the Maori tradition ‘guardians' of the forest, and in this case also of the memory of a specific fallen soldier.”

A living memorial forest would therefore be a 'guard of guardians” to remembering these sacrifices, their stories, and to the restoration and protection of the natural environment.

A National WW1 Forest is would be a more permanent, enduring and generous memorial than anything built by man, he says.

'It is also as far as we have been able to determine a world first and the Coromandel is the perfect home for it.”

For more information about the Coromandel National WW1 Memorial Forest Project visit www.tcdc.govt.nz/ww1memorialforest