Woodland creation at Snaizeholme

Snaizeholme. A giant boost for nature in the Yorkshire Dales and the White Rose Forest. 2025 update. 

Alec Pue, Snaizeholme site manager: “welcome to Snaizeholme, a site owned and managed by the Woodland Trust, supported by the White Rose Forest. Tree planting has gone really well again this year, really much better weather for the planters, I’m sure. I’m sure they’ll probably talk a bit more positively about it when you talk to them, but we’ve effectively gotten pretty close to finishing up that main bulk of planting that we aimed for. We are pretty close to about 290 hectares across this site planted, so all the slopes that you see around me have been planted now. 

"We just finished up planting in this valley bottom here, and this is where we are actually changing tact a little bit. Where we’re planting in the deep gullies, there are waders in and around here, so the idea is that we really keep the trees out of the sightlines of them waders. We’re planting mainly shrubs in these deep-lying gills. It’s really important here to get this tree cover down in here up against the watercourses, creating that dappled shade to regulate temperature in the watercourses. Also, adding woody debris into these watercourses is great for inverts (invertebrates) and what’s been missing in a lot of these landscapes. 

"This is a good example of what we’re trying to create here in the valley bottom and some of the different planting we’ve done. You might see that there’s multiple trees in this one area and this one scrape; the idea here is that we’re trying to create thicket, really make it more difficult for herbivores to get in here and really impact on this. We are in the farm valley bottom here, so there are cows in and amongst all this. I also think it’d be great habitat down here, and as you can see, we’ve already had a little bit of browsing on some of these, but you know, thorn and the like are quite resistant to that. And then, obviously, with the amount that we’ve planted here, you’d expect plenty to get away.

Richard Atton, tree planting contractor: “well, thankfully the weather’s been a lot kinder to us this season. Last season was pretty much rain all the time. We’ve been pretty lucky; we still get a fair mixture here but compared to last year it’s been quite nice.”  

Antony Brown, tree planting contractor: “last season, shall we say, Snaizeholme was sort of testing us; it’s definitely been more mellow for us now.” 

Ian Plested, tree planting contractor: “it’s hard work, but it’s nice to be here. The good thing now is the wildlife’s coming back; you can hear the birds coming back. So it’s quite nice, especially on a day like this.” 

Richard: “we’ve done all the way around the valley now, and now we’re back onto just replanting a few of the spots where the wildlife have taken quite a taste to the trees that we planted in previous seasons. But we kind of knew that that was going to happen; that’s all part of the job. Well, I think so far we’re about around the 200,000 mark. Good days and bad days really; it just depends on the existing vegetation because that can be quite thick, chopping through it to get some bare soil to plant into. But yeah, generally we average about between 600 and 700 trees per man per day, something like that.”  

Anthony: “it’s like a marathon; you just sort of carry on seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. There has been some losses, but as you look through and you get your head in, you can actually see quite a few growing. I’ve seen the odd aspen as well, and in my eyes, if you’ve got one aspen—we all know an aspen suckers out—you can create a whole forest from one aspen. So, you know, job done.” 

Alec: “we do have a long-term research program here which will help us monitor these trees and the survival rates that we’re getting. We want things to develop naturally, so we’re accepting that we will lose a lot of trees and things will develop quite naturally, but I think it’s important that we do keep track of that. If deemed necessary, we can intervene where needed. 

"Next year going forward, we do have some plans to do a bit more planting, but covering the old ground. We’re looking at introducing some more niche species into the landscape, so montane scrub mainly—looking at things like eared willow and dwarf birches, things that you would associate to do well out here. That’d be great to reintroduce back into this landscape. 

"Last year we undertook river restoration work which has introduced woody debris into the watercourse. We also raised the riverbed level in various places and reconnected the floodplain. It’s settling in really nicely; some of the trees get knocked around a little bit, and again, more natural processes are taking effect, some really great responses so far. We’re keeping a close eye on it.

"Jonny Grey from the Wild Trout Trust is out there quite regularly and has got some great time-lapses and drone footage of when it’s in severe flood – yeah, it’s exciting. We do have plans going forward; we’re working with a consultant to model the whole valley and see where the water’s going and see what other opportunities we have for improving aquatic and wetland habitats. 

"We also finished up with one phase of peat restoration work up on the head of the valley, working in partnership with the Yorkshire Peat Partnership. All that work is responding really nicely; water is coming off that site a lot slower, there’s a lot more water knocking around up there, it’s definitely a lot wetter. We do have another small phase of work happening in the next couple of weeks trying to revegetate some of the areas of bare peat, which includes plug planting and some reseeding. 

"Last summer we got pretty well wrapped up with the fencing. We did pull off as the weather gets very wet out here—ground conditions mean that the machinery can't travel—but we’ve got everything in the tree areas and a lot of the valley bottom that we want to fence, we’ll be back in a couple of weeks to finish up a few bits and pieces but that’s largely been completed. One of the big jobs was fencing for the farming unit down this valley bottom; we’ve broken up the valley bottom in a way that we can manage the livestock and rotate them to make sure there is not too much pressure in certain areas. We’re working really closely with a local grazier to manage the land here. We have a herd of Herefords still on here, and it's a really good relationship working with the farmer to deliver for both conservation and farming needs. 

"We are also removing a lot of redundant fencing on this site. We put in a lot of fencing—up to about 20 km—but we’ve got probably close to that just in redundant fencing which we just don’t have a need for anymore. It’s a blot on the landscape, so it will be really good to get this removed. We’ve also just finished work restoring three field barns on-site. We wanted to make sure that we retained them in the landscape but also put them to use—for welfare facilities on this very remote site, and also for educational reasons and group visits. We’re in deep talks with other organisations to try and understand how we can use the space really."

Richard: “I’d say the end of stage one is in sight. It’s going to be a case of constantly coming back and tweaking certain areas. We have planted all the what you’d call "virgin areas,", where there’s not been any planting done already, finishing that just around Christmas time. It’s going to be a case of monitoring it, seeing where we need to come back in and replant." 

Ian: “I did a similar project in the 90s over in East Lancashire, not quite on this scale, but going back to see 30-year-old trees is quite rewarding. I’m looking forward to coming back in 10 or 20 years and having a good look at it.”  

Richard: “it’s such a slog, we all think ‘oh we’ve got to get to the end,’ but it has been a big part of our lives. So there's a little bit of sadness really, but the connection will still be there. All of us will be coming back here in one form or another to keep an eye on it and see how it transforms over the years." 

Anthony: “there’s definitely a sense of pride. We might get a little bit of the benefit of it - we’ll probably see it just getting above our heads by the time I’m a fairly old man - but it’s a legacy you’re leaving. That spurs you on to keep going on the worst days. When you see these woodlands on the edge, some of the plantation, you know it’ll get to that height, but you realise you won’t be around for that. It’s definitely for the grandchildren.

Richard: “I’m just hoping that I’ll come back on a nice warm spring day and I’ll hear all the birds singing, and maybe sit under the shade of some of the trees that we’ve planted. Fingers crossed.” 

Thank you. The Snaizeholme Estate was acquired by the Woodland Trust thanks to the generosity of our incredible individual supporters, charitable trusts and corporate partners. 

The trees, fencing and planting at Snaizeholme this year have been funded through the White Rose Forest and their Trees for Climate programme, part of the Government’s Nature for Climate fund. 

Help us grow. Every tree planted in North or West Yorkshire helps to grow the White Rose Forest and the larger Northern Forest that stretches from Liverpool to the Yorkshire coast.  

www.thenorthernforest.org.uk/get-involved 

www.whiteroseforest.org/get-involved