Planting 4 years on

March 2020 saw us start a 3 week project in schools in Neath Port Talbot planting trees, hedgerows and woodlands across the area with 1000s of kids, what could possibly go wrong!! The weather was great for trees, it rained pretty much every day. Covid was in the news daily but no one really knew where the country was heading. Then two and a half weeks into the project the country locked down. Thankfully we had managed to get all the trees in the ground with the exception of one school which we had to plant without the kids.

It was a difficult time, we traveled separately were not allowed into schools, but its fair to say the kids had a blast as you can see in the pics, and they got stuck in. On reflection, for many, this was probably their last "adventure outdoors" for many months and I’m so glad we got to complete it with them.

Lockdown brought it’s own set of challenges, the kids had been due to water the new trees but as most were not in school this was not possible. As a business we did not own a van and hired them for projects, Covid put an end to this way of working as rental firms shut and any vans on hire had to be returned. Our client asked us to arrange watering, slightly challenging without a van, so as a business we had to buy one. Also a challenge as there were only a few tippers on the market as most van dealers had also shut, we found one and sorted training to use a standpipe, got an exemption to be allowed out to water, then it was just negotiating with 10 caretakers to arrange access.

A few of the schools during this period became schools for teachers children and they loved our weekly visits to water their trees and always were keen to grab a watering can and help.

Roll forwards 5 years and in the last few weeks we have been back to remove stakes, ties, guards and treepans. The trees have done amazingly well, what started as 8-10s are now 35-40s or larger.

In 2020 one school had an issue - in that they could not use their playing field as a large larch felling, due to phytophera on the hill to the rear, changed the hydrology and meant their playing field was constantly underwater. A free woodland pack had previously failed, so we went with a wet woodland mix, this has thrived and as the teacher said they worry about the trees, as they can't stop the kids playing in the woodland (great result) and a lot of the willow has been used to make dens.

in 2024 only 2 standards have failed, one of these has disappeared, the other was snapped. Both of these were in the school we were unable to plant with the school children, I do wonder, would that be different, if the kids had been in school?

Community engagement has always been a big part of of my Urban Forestry career and this experience just continues to highlight its importance.

Well done to the project team Woodland Dwelling Theri Reichlin RichardPulman Catrin Evans NickolasTimlin and here's to another exciting planting season Schools CommunityEngagement

Taken and edited from Russell Horsey linked In.