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Planting with your community - getting started

Like any project, tree planting with your community involves hard work to be successful, but that's just part of the story.

Community tree planting event Community woodland creation is a richly rewarding activity that can bring everyone together to do something positive, lasting and fun in the spaces we share. Whether it's the creation of a new community woodland or orchard, or hedges and copses being planted around buildings or allotments, working together is a good way to share the workload and multiply the enjoyment!

Starting out

If you want your trees, wood or orchard to become a cherished part of your local area, it is very important to talk to local people and seek their input about what they want. Interest and support may take a while to build but that can be a good thing, giving you time to plan your project. Conversations with locally active people, followed by a wider public meeting is a good way to start putting your ideas forward and identifying people who are interested in joining a group.

What kind of group to form?

Trees, woods and orchards can be created and looked after by all sort of groups and organisations from local authorities, residents’ associations and food co-ops to newly formed charitable trusts or informal ‘Friends’ groups. A lot depends on whether you plan to own or lease the land. For most groups, setting up an informal and cost-free unincorporated association will be adequate if you are leaseholding. Another option is to set-up as a charity. This will help with fundraising, but there are initial set-up costs as well as legal requirement such as producing audited accounts.

Common Ground logo The information in the links below has been kindly reproduced from the Community Orchard Handbook, published by Common Ground.

This is an excellent and useful guide to creating a community orchard, but the advice it contains is useful whatever tree planting project you are undertaking. For more information, buy your copy online by visiting their shop.

Aims
Constitution
Leases
Safety
Choosing trees
Organisation

Setting aims and objectives

It is important to gain a consensus on your aims and objectives from the outset. The aim could be as simple as: “to create and maintain a Community Orchard (woodland) for the benefit of local people and wildlife”.

The objectives you choose will vary depending on local issues, but could include to create a orchard / woodland that:

• conserves traditional and local varieties
• optimises the potential for wildlife
• is managed organically
• is accessible at reasonable times
• offers a place for recreation and quiet contemplation
• ensures that horticultural and wildlife management can be learnt and passed on
• offers a harvest of fruit that can be shared, as agreed, leaving a tithe for wildlife
• offers community involvement in its development and management
• and a host of activities from education to celebration

To realise your aims and meet your legal requirements, your group needs to become organised with a constitution and a committee for delivering the management plan.

This copy has been reproduced from the Community Orchard Handbook. To buy your copy of this excellent book and read more information, please visit the Common Ground shop.

Writing a constitution

Once the overall objectives are agreed, it is not difficult to shape these into a simple constitution. It’s an idea to include some quite broad aims in your constitution to build in adaptability for the future. For instance, you might be planning just to look after one piece of land, but later you may be offered other plots nearby, so try not to constrain yourself too tightly in your constitution or you may have to keep changing it.

Frieze Hill Community Orchard helpfully includes a sample constitution on its website:
http://www.communityorchard.org.uk/constitution.htm

Copy has kindly been reproduced from The Community Orchard Handbook. For more information you can buy this excellent book by online by visiting the Common Ground shop.

Leases and other legalities

If you are to lease the land, you will need to have a lease or licence that includes a tenancy or management agreement with the owner that ensures access at all reasonable times. This may be renewed yearly or every five, ten, ninety-nine years and so on. The rent should be a nominal or peppercorn rent, which could be paid in fruit if you are creating an orchard, or firewood if you are planting for wood fuel for example.

Much will depend on who owns the land. For example, the land may belong to a local authority who might be willing to either give you the land (under a community transfer agreement), sell it below market value or lease it to you. An alternative arrangement to a lease, should it prove problematic, might be to adopt a shorter-term Service Level Agreement.

This text has been reproduced from the Community Orchard Handbook. For more information, you can buy this excellent book by visiting Common Ground's online shop.

If you are interested in buying land, see our page on obtaining land for tree planting.

Safety and insurance

Insurance

Insurance is one of the first things you need to put in place, not least to protect the trustees or management committee of your group from claims made against them. It may be possible to take out insurance cover through BTCV, the annual premium being based on the expected number of workdays and volunteers.

Securing access

Make sure that in your lease / licence / tenancy agreement, access to the site is available to all members and local people at reasonable times.

Health and safety

To safeguard visitors to your site and those working in it (as far as you are able), you will need to draft a health and safety plan and get it adopted by the management of your group at the outset.

You will need to show you have considered and catered for any potential problems when you have work parties and events at the wood / orchard, and for insurance / fundraising purposes. Common Ground’s Community Orchards Handbook features a handy 15 point checklist on what a health & safety policy should cover.

The text on this page has been reproduced from the Community Orchard handbook by Common Ground.
Buy your copy from their online shop.

You have now reached the end of our community tree planting pages aimed at helping you to start your project. Use the links below to see other related topics that may be of interest, or click on the right arrow to go to the next section in our advice guide; 'choosing your trees'.

Choosing your trees

Which species do I need?

9 Year old Ash trees. WTPL / LEld Choosing the right species of tree for your area is key to the success of your project. Some trees will grow better in certain areas than others - aspect, altitude and hydrology are all important factors to consider.

Some species like willow and alder prefer wet areas, whereas aspen and birch can survive on high, exposed, sites. Oak (in its many forms) is found everywhere in the UK, as is hazel and hawthorn.

A good indicator is to look at which species are growing well in the surrounding area. Remember that native trees are better adapted to our climate and are more likely to succeed.

Think about what you want to achieve. If you are planting for firewood or creating an orchard for example, then species will be driven by other factors such as the importance of preserving local varieties. Native trees also provide a beautiful array of colour - think about what type of visual impact you want to create.

Consider the space you have available. A large tree – an oak, ash or lime – can grow to a height of 20m and a span of 15m.....but it takes a long time! In general, the quicker the growth rate the shorter the lifespan of a tree – so you may consider planting a mix of species with a view to taking out some of the faster growing ones in roughly 15 years time. Trees do need management and this approach will enable you to gradually expose the bigger, slower growing trees.

Funding your tree planting project

There are many schemes and sources of funding available to assist landowners and communities who are interested in creating woods.

If you have over a hectare of land to plant, The Woodland Trust's MOREwoods scheme may be able to help you with funding and acquiring trees. Trees don't need to be planted in a block, planting across a landscape may also be eligible. Contact our woodland creation team for more information.

Woodland creation grants are available throughout the UK through the Forestry Commission (Forestry Service in N.Ireland) grant schemes. Our woodland creation team can provide advice on Forestry Commission funding. Find more details on these grants.

In addition to this, some local councils also offer support for small scale woodland creation schemes. This can be anything from 25 free trees to grants of up to £500. In the first instance it may be worth contacting your local authority to find out what is available in your area.

Many community woodland groups have also successfully raised funds to plant trees or buy land through local fundraising drives. Local appeals, fundraising events such as high-value prize raffles or sponsorship activities can all help bring in money. Local businesses may also be willing to provide donations or prizes that you could auction for example.

Organising a tree planting event

Agree and set a date for your tree planting event. Give people enough time to book it into their diaries. Publicise the event locally by placing posters at key places in your local area such a community noticeboard or shop, or by putting a notice in your local newspaper.

Plan the planting

Mark out where you want your trees to be planted. Key people may wish to wear bright jackets to identify them.
Whether you have 10 people or 100 people attending you will need to plan the planting event carefully. Mark out the location for individual trees with canes before people arrive. To make sure the right tree goes in the right place, consider colour-coding the canes and the corresponding bags of trees.

Tools

People can always bring their own spades or a local conservation group may be able to lend you some. Bare-root trees are usually tied together in bundles so don't forget a knife to cut the string.

Suitable clothing

Recommend that people wear old clothes and sturdy footwear such as wellingtons - tree planting and mud go hand-in-hand!

Things to consider:

How will people get to your site, by car? Where will they park? Is public transport available, how and where?
Think about the time of your event. Short events may be best - in winter it can get dark by 4pm!
Contact the media if you would like the event covered in your local newspaper as a feature.
Organise your tree planting materials for the day - spades, tree guards, stakes and canes.
Carry out a health and safety risk assesment and take actions as appropriate
Organise signage to help people get to your event
Are there any toilet facilities nearby?
Make sure marshalls on the day are clear and visible (i.e. bright jackets or badges)
What are your emergency procedures? Make sure there is a first-aid kit on site. How will you let people know if you have to cancel the event?
Mark off any areas which are out of bounds.
Ensure someone is nominated to take photos.
Prepare a plan for how you will clean up after everyone has gone home. You will need to take down the signs and recover all tools, check the trees have been planted properly and adjust them accordingly.
Write any thank you letters and let people know what happened.

Keeping your community interested

Overview:

Maintaining community interest in your tree planting project can be quite a challenge, especially during the early years when the trees are still establishing. There are some mass participation activities that you can easily organise which will help keep people engaged such as weeding the tree bases, topping up chippings or replacing mulch mats. Removing the tree guards is also a satisfying task for volunteers when the time is right to do so.

WTPL / David Rodway
Think creatively about and what else you could do at the site. Picnics are great fun for everyone to attend, or try setting up a local wildlife recording group to note the species that are starting to use the site.

Organising work parties

Work to an agreed management plan. Volunteers must be supervised, especially when young people are present. Make sure an adult accompanies participants under 18 years of age to work parties and public events. Ensure you are complying with all the health and safety regulations, wearing appropriate clothing and so on. Hold work parties at regular times so people know when to expect them.

Keeping in touch with members and the wider community

Your group constitution should state the minimum number of open and closed meetings there should be each year. Keep proper minutes so you can always refer back to decisions made. At closed meetings the trustees or group management can discuss site management, fundraising, promotion, organising events and so on. At an open meeting, discuss and endorse the management agreement at the outset and the ways in which the group might be run.

The most important thing is to make people feel welcome and involved. Delegate tasks to keep people engaged, bearing in mind that some members will be much more active than others. The most difficult thing is to keep your wider community involved over a long period. Make sure that belonging to your group is enjoyable and not all hard graft. If you have planted an orchards for exampl, go on excursions to other community orchards, visit orchards in blossom time, make juice together, enjoy your own and visit other groups’ Apple Day and wassailing events. Meet up with like-minded people and share ideas.