Woodland Trust's Big Climate Fightback

A happy tree-planting group

National Tree Week and the Big Climate Fightback

This weekend was the Woodland Trust's 'Big Climate Fightback' campaign to get a million trees planted.  So we organised a work-party up at the Biodiversity Area on Sunday 1st December.  The grass had just had a second cut, which made walking around the path more manageable.  It was great to see the enthusiasm of the volunteers, young and old.  Thirteen adults and four children, got stuck into clearing grass, cutting bramble, and planting another 30 trees - mainly native tree seedlings from our gardens.

Busy volunteers

Here are some of the volunteers, with another four of us who do not appear in the photos.  We have ordered some more packs of trees, so this looks like being a busy Winter, as we fill in the gaps around the spiral maze hedgerow.

It was a bright, dry but cold afternoon.  We were delighted to have another sighting of a Stonechat, which flitted around us and sat on the top of canes.

Big Climate Fightback - Woodland Trust 2019

Seven years' progress - let's celebrate!

Before we started - Winter 2012

Seven years ago - first tree planting in December 2012

This week is National Tree Week and the Woodland Trust are asking people to pledge to plant a million trees by this weekend.  So we are going up to the Biodiversity Area on Sunday 1st December from 1.30pm onwards to plant a few more trees and to maintain the ones we already have planted.  We are planning to cut back brambles and remove some tree guards which are now too tight. The weather is still mild, so the grass is likely to be quite long.  Seven years have passed since our first planting on 4th December 2012.  Some of the volunteers are no longer with us having moved away, but new people have joined us along the way.  Many thanks to all those who have offered encouragement and support to this project, which is beginning to bear fruit both metaphorically and in reality!

Cherry Tree in 2019

Nuts and berries for the birds

On visiting the Biodiversity Area today, I could see that many of the trees now have ripe berries for birds and small mammals.  One of the packs of trees donated by the Woodland Trust was specifically chosen for this purpose.  We have rose-hips, dogwood berries, rowan berries, hazelnuts and whitebeam berries.

Dog Rose

Rowan

Hazel

In turn the mice which eats these fruits and nuts build nests which will be used by future bumblebee queens, and are in turn eaten by owls.

Dogwood

Haven for pollinating insects and butterflies

In early August, on a warm sunny afternoon I went to carry out a count of butterfly species for the Big Butterfly Count.  The main grassland species Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Gatekeeper were present, but in smaller numbers than earlier in the year, due to the warm summer they had emerged early.  I also saw Small Copper, Large and Small Whites and several Small Skippers.

Large White on Common Knapweed

There were also a lot of bumblebees, feeding on the Knapweed.  There were a lot of Red-tailed, Common Carder and White or Buff-tailed Bumblebees. I saw at least one Queen Red-tailed and several males.

White-tailed

Red-tailed Male

White-tailed Bumblebee

Red-tailed Female (Queen)

 I also found the colourful Cinnabar Moth caterpillars.

 There were other pollinators too, including this Soldier Fly.

On July 13th, I went to visit the area and found that there were lots of wild flowers in bloom.  As we are only topping the grass once or twice per year, and we do not have the possibility of raking the grass cuttings, it is heartening to see the development of so many flowering species, thriving in competition with the grasses.

Marsh Woundwort

Yarrow

Meadow Buttercup and Silverweed

Oxeye Daisies and Marsh Thistle

Catsear

There are also a lot of Common Knapweed which provide a lengthy season of nectar in July and August.

All the new trees are planted now

On Saturday morning it was a beautiful sunny day so Penny and I completed the planting of the rest of the 100 trees (sent to us by Woodland Trust as part of the Memorial Woods plantings).

So far, since December 2012, volunteers from Winkleigh area have planted approximately 350 native trees on the site, and the Spiral Maze hedgerow has eventually become clearer 'on the ground'.  Thanks to the cutting of the grass round the path, it can also be seen from the satellite images on Google.


Here are some more photos of the maturing trees.

Rowan planted 2012

Wild Cherry planted 2014

 ...and the volunteers planting the new ones.

Spring 2019

Trees are flowering once again in Spring

Today, I went up to the Mound again to continue planting around the Spiral Maze Hedgerow.  Sue came along to help me and we planted more than 30 trees in around an hour.

Thanks to the Woodland Trust, we were given a further 100 trees this winter, 30 of which I planted with Sheila, Sue (W) and Andrew last November.

We put in some silver birch, hazel, cherry and hawthorn.  It was a beautiful Spring day and a pleasure to be outdoors.  We saw a wren, blue tits, a ladybird, bumble bees and also - rather exciting - a pair of stonechats on brambles and sloe.

Female stonechat

The trees I photographed last year have really grown significantly.  Cherries and Goat Willow are in blossom, with Dogwood nearly in flower already.

Pussy Willow Catkins

Wild Cherry with Blossom