Glaramara
With the help of students from University College Birmingham, the Glaramara Outdoor Activities Centre, in the Borrowdale Valley near Keswick in the Lake District, has planted 500 native tree saplings. It’s part of plans to improve wildlife biodiversity within their grounds, attracting new species to the site and allowing existing wildlife to adapt to changes in their environment.
Shropshire
In Shropshire, Sue and Matthew McFarlane are planting two hectares of native woodland at Overs Farm, Haughton near Bridgnorth. The new woodland will consist of 1,500 mixed native saplings which in a few years will have developed into a young woodland rich in life and vitality. The McFarlanes will use the woodland as an outdoor learning resource, offering children the opportunity to discover nature and enrich their lives for years to come.
Colchester
House restorer Barry Davison has turned back the clock at his home at Monks Farm, near Colchester, by transforming an area into a new young native woodland. The Woodland Trust has helped him to plant 4,500 broadleaf trees on two hectares of former gravel extraction land, which will create a magical habitat for wildlife. ‘We have done a lot of work to restore natural ecosystems; dug out ditches, restored pasture and planted a lot of hedging. I know from planting the hedges what stunning growth you get within 12 years. We have already got owls, fox, pheasant, and a whole host of wildlife. The new woodland will add to that. And thanks to the Trust, we also have a great area of young trees with ash, willow, oak, chestnut, hazel and hawthorn.’ In a few short years, this will be a magnificent wood rich in flora and fauna.