Don’t miss summer’s stunning spectacle
Woods and meadows in Glen Devon have burst into summer colour and now’s the best time to visit, says the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity the Woodland Trust.
Geordie’s wood at Yetts O Muckhart, was sown with seeds including poppies, blue cornflowers, pink campion and daisies.
Site manager James Gilmour explained the importance of the project: "Wildflowers play a vital role in creating new woods. They help newly planted woodland become established by acting as ground cover to stave off weeds and quickly attract wildlife to the site. And of course its helping to colour the countryside with more wildflowers which have been in decline over the last 50 years.”
The Forest of Flowers scheme was set up in 2004, with the environmental charity Landlife, who over the past 30 years developed the idea of 'Creative Conservation' - the creation of new places from scratch where wildlife can flourish and which people can enjoy.
James continued: “It’s sad to think that more and more people are growing up without the chance to see the wildflowers that older generations took for granted. Our Forest of Flowers project is helping reverse the decline and to reconnect people to what our landscape used to be like in the relatively recent past.”
The success of the project has been credited with a new ploughing method whereby soil up to 1 metre deep is inverted using a special Bovlund plough. The plough buries the fertile top layer of soil whilst bringing to the surface the sterile sub-level on which wildflowers thrive.
ENDS
Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
Jacqui Morris on 01355 578777 or mobile 07979 706675 alternatively call The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, e-mail
media@woodlandtrust.org.ukThe 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.
In 1984, the Trust acquired its first wood in Scotland. In the last 25 years the Trust has increased its holdings in Scotland it now owns 80 sites across Scotland covering 8,500 hectares. Further news can be accessed via this website.