But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s recap everything we’ve achieved so far with Treescapes!
A new branch for Severn Treescapes
In March we completed the DEFRA Trees Call to Action funded phase of the Severn Treescapes Project. Although this part has come to an end, we’re proud to announce that we’ve successfully received additional funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to start another branch of the Treescapes project: The Dead Wood Society.
Trying to fit the two-and-a-half-year project onto one timeline was a difficult task but seeing it all together gives a real sense of how much the project has been able to do in such a short time.
The 166,946 trees we’ve already planted adds up to be almost 42 hectares (103 acres) which have been planted over the past couple of winters.
We’ve worked with 185 different landowners across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and will continue to work with them this winter as we plant some of the trees we’ve pipelined with them.
We’ve been able to plant these trees with the help of multiple different grants – 148 different schemes have been applied to. These include the grant the Treescapes project offers through the Environment Agency, along with partnership work with the Forestry Commission, Gloucestershire County Council’s Trees for Gloucestershire grants and National Landscapes Farming in Protected Landscapes.
Many projects couldn’t have taken place without a lot of help from our amazing volunteers. They’ve given us so much time and support planting hedgerows, orchards and putting up guards. Thank you again to everyone who has helped with the project!
The project has hosted and been present at 134 different events, engaging a total of 6, 072 people. These included 20 different education sessions and 15 successful orchard workshops, attended by 160 people. Our orchard workshops were funded by Wye Valley National Landscapes as a joint project to help the landowners who were planting orchards with the project. With the help of Tim Andrews from Orchard Revival and Martin Hayes from Gloucester Orchard Trust, we created a program of workshops to guide people throughout the full season of caring for orchard trees. We started off with planning and planting an orchard, teaching people how to prune their trees at different stages (formative and restorative) and finished off with what you can do with the produce (juicing and preserving). The first season was a huge success, so we hosted a second season which also included a grafting workshop.
Our work with orchards inspired us for our next phase of the Severn Treescapes Project: The Dead Wood Society. It’s a continuation of the previous Treescapes work, so we will still be offering support and advice to landowners who wish to plant more trees on their land. The area for the Dead Wood Society has increased the Treescapes original area slightly, to encompass records of a few notable species – violet click beetles, noble chafer beetles and lesser spotted woodpecker. These are all rare species which rely on dead and decaying wood to survive. Orchards are particularly special as the fruit trees tend to age quicker than broadleaf species such as oak. We will continue to offer orchard workshops to help landowners best manage their orchard to enable the habitats to continue to thrive and grow.
An especially exciting part of the project will be gathering evidence of orchards and ancient trees within the area, leading to the development of a group of trained volunteers specializing in invertebrates. If you have any experience in this area or would like to find out more about the upcoming opportunities please keep and eye on our social media pages, or contact us: SevernTreescapes@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk
