GreenLiving Rare trees kept in the dark for major north Wales planting project A huge boost to our nation’s tree species is under way as part of a major planting programme being carried out by the North Wales Wildlife Trust
L-R: Jonathan Hulson, Sarah Ellis and Lisa James
A
mini forest has been stored in suspended animation in north Wales, including one of the rarest and most valuable trees in Europe. More than 16,000 small saplings are housed in a steel storage unit supplied by Denbigh’s Container Sales Centre (CSC), waiting to be planted at North Wales Wildlife Trust’s Aberduna Nature Reserve. The former shipping container is the ideal place for the saplings. “It’s perfect because it doesn’t let any light in at all and that way we can keep the small trees in a state of suspended animation for a few months,” says Jonathan Hulson, a project manager at Woodlands For Water. “Once the trees come out, they soon come back to life.”
Super species
Among the varieties are native species such as sessile oak, rowan, hazel, field maple, willow, silver birch and Scots pine. There are some
Recycling b m challenges system The recent rise in the amount of household recycling has prompted fears that facilities won’t be able to cope
A
less common trees too, including the wild service tree, which was common before farming saw much of the land cleared and is now highly valued in Germany, where veneer-grade wild service timber can fetch prices of over €4,000 per cubic metre. “The specimen we’ve got came from a woodland in the Vale of Clwyd, but hopefully in a couple of hundred years there will be lots of them in our landscape,” says Jonathan. “We are planting them for their value in slowing the rate at which water drains from the land, an important aid in preventing flooding.” The trust has four nurseries growing young trees around Aberduna Quarry, and many of the saplings are then being planted on farmland, new housing developments and industrial estates across the area. They are grown to between 90 and 120cm high, which is just tall enough to prevent the top leaves being grazed by sheep.
“Hopefully in a couple of hundred years there will be lots of wild service trees in our landscape”
Going native
“The container is proving ideal for us because we have been able to keep the trees dormant for planting out in the field or potted up in our nursery,” says Sarah Ellis, a Woodlands For Water project officer. “Our remaining ancient woodlands in north-east Wales are generally poor in terms of species diversity because native trees such as sessile oak were mostly cut down to be used as pit props and fuel in the mining industry.” of home recycling. To highlight the problem, the packaging brand created a larger-thanlife recycling bin, standing
study of 2,000 adults found that one-third have seen a boom in their recycling since “More than one You’re gonna need a bigger bin shed… the beginning of the pandemic, with almost in 10 people two-thirds (64 per cent) putting this down to at just under 7ft tall, to demonstrate the admitted to being home more. Almost half (48 per cent) scale of the changes that are needed. blamed packaging from online deliveries for “Even before the pandemic, we were making simply putting their overflowing bins, with many saying they the switch to online shopping and working recycling into have run out of space in their bins as a result. from home more, but Covid-19 restrictions their rubbish bin” revolutionised these trends,” says Rogier Gerritsen, Top items people are recycling more of include hand soap containers (30 per cent) and toilet rolls managing director of DS Smith. “With many of (25 per cent), while 35 per cent say they’re embarrassed about these changes looking set to stay, including our new recycling habits, the amount of waste they produce. But more than one in 10 we need to ensure that our collections infrastructure enables us to (12 per cent) admitted to putting recycling into the rubbish recycle as much material as possible from our domestic streams. bin, meaning it is likely to end up in landfill or incineration. “We applaud the government for its ambitious recycling targets, According to recycling and packaging company DS Smith, but at the moment we’re not on track. Based on current recycling which commissioned the research, the UK’s recycling trends our data suggests that we’ll only meet the 65 per cent recycling infrastructure isn’t equipped to deal with the increased volume target for municipal waste in 2048, over 10 years too late.” 72 SHIRE MAGAZINE | September/October 2021
Green Living SeptOct 2021 FINAL.indd 105
27/08/2021 09:18
