Help, advice and funding can transform under-used areas of farmland into woodland
Native trees have long been the farmer’s friend, but current challenges spell out a need for more trees, as an integral part of good husbandry and as a boost to productive agriculture.
Increased planting on farms is now a key plank in the Woodland Trust’s drive to increase native tree cover – and with good reason.
Native woods and trees bring a whole range of benefits to farmers. For a start, new native woodland can provide shelter and shade for livestock, while producing sustainable supplies of timber and wood-fuel. Fast maturing species and good soil conditions can deliver sustainable firewood for the farmhouse within 7 to 10 years.
In addition, native trees can help prevent flooding by intercepting rainfall and absorbing water from the soil. And, planted in the right place, trees and hedges can improve water quality. Strips of trees alongside watercourses have been shown to reduce sedimentation and run-off from manure and fertiliser following heavy rainfall by as much as 90 per cent.
Our native woods are magical wildlife habitats, havens for pollinating insects, and beneficial to our own health and wellbeing. Whatever your incentive for planting, the actual benefits to wildlife start from the day of planting and within as little as 12 years you could be walking through your own flourishing young forest of oak, ash, hazel and rowan.
The Woodland Trust, through its MOREwoods programme, is now working with farmers and landowners to encourage woodland creation, offering almost four decades of expertise in planting native trees through a specialist team of woodland creation advisers.
“We’re offering all the practical tree planting advice you need and, thanks to Forest Service’s Woodland Grant Scheme, grant aid is available for planting half an acre or more,” says Patrick Cregg, director of the Woodland Trust in Northern Ireland. “The idea that landowners can actually have their land planted for them – and at little or no cost - has already been well received.
“Planting trees can bring immediate gains in productivity while also making the farm more resilient to a changing climate. Our native trees have long been a part of the farming landscape, but we have lost huge numbers over the years. Only now, when we analyse just what benefits they bring, does it become ever clearer that we need to plant more.”
Applications for the Trust’s MOREwoods initiative are being welcomed from this month (May). To find out more telephone 08452 935 689; email woodlandcreation@woodlandtrust.org.uk or visit www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/planting
Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
Kaye Coates at the Woodland Trust’s Bangor Office on 028 9127 5787; email kayecoates@woodlandtrust.org.uk or
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121; email media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.
Here in Northern Ireland the Woodland Trust cares for 51 woods. These woods contain a mix of recently planted woodland, mature woodland and ancient woodland (that’s land continuously wooded since at least 1600). We have recently produced the first-ever comprehensive record of Northern Ireland’s ancient woodland; find out more at www.backonthemap.org.uk