And the trees are in!

With the help of some friends we have managed to get all the (nearly 3000) trees planted this week. We have planted up 425m of new hedgerow, and scattered some trees where the new woodland will be along the bank of the stream. Something to celebrate this Sunday evening before getting too down about going back to work tomorrow. It has been exhausting, at times cold and wet, but incredibly satisfying to see the progress this week.

The woodland has only got 120 scattered trees planted for the moment. Over the area that will become woodland this looks quite sparse, but this will change. Partly those trees will grow of course, but also our ecologist advisers expect there to be natural regeneration. A further reason is that we still need to add about 30 older trees (not that old, but 8-10 years old). To generate the woodland biodiversity units we need to have a mix of ages of trees to meet the requirements, which makes it worth the expense of bringing in more mature trees. However, if we are not going to be able to either generate biodiversity units or find a market for them, then we might as well be more patient and plant young trees spread over the next decade.

Thanks again to all those who came out to help. Here is a tour of the whole site…