Planting plan complete!

This first plan will change and evolve. I will have made mistakes. I will learn more from future visits to woodlands and from experts visiting Bel’s Wood.  The first draft is however done and has left me to be turned into a proposal for the Woodland Creation Grant. The Forestry Commission will no doubt challenge and test the plan and in time, I hope, they will get behind it so it can go forward for funding.

Balance
One of my struggles has been the balance of planting saplings ,which I believe is highly desirable and is the point of the project, while leaving open spaces to enjoy the view, sit with friends and enjoy fires at night. This is real head and heart stuff. There are places I have never been able to access due to thick gorse (which will be removed) and others areas I lost access to when the bracken engulfed the site. Studying my aerial map again (thanks to Andy Brown https://www.shepherdaerial.com) has re-assured me that the lovely open spaces I enjoy need not be crowded out as I will be planting mostly on those no-go areas.

The pink highlighted areas below are where the gorse will be removed. The bracken can be seen as brown in the picture and these areas are barely navigable at the moment. The green highlighted areas are the areas to be planted

I have come up with my very own ‘Conservations Areas’ which won’t be planted on. These will retain views or they will leave some of my beautiful mature trees space to dominate. Today I mapped all three of these; I have walked 10,000 steps and climbed 39 floors and feel happy with the result. Below the green lines denote the three areas which won't be planted.

Choosing Trees
With the target of choosing 3,500 trees I felt overwhelmed at the beginning. I created a list of trees native to Cumbria and listed their relative height and specifics such as liking wet areas, being good for particular butterflies or other species of fauna. I have chosen those that give colour and interest across the seasons and have included some that live to a ripe old age - Maple and Hornbeam last over 300 years and sweet chestnut over 700 years! Hard to conceive of this lifecycle. A 21 year project feels long term to me.

Where I have plenty of a specific tree I have excluded those - gorse, bracken and blackthorn don’t need my help! I have added to the stock of some species that thrive there already, especially where it is not apparent that they are propagating naturally - rowan, cherry and birch. I have been introduced to the concept of a ‘senile wood’ and think that’s what mine is. It would have been a woodland that has been felled in part. Then grazed so the mature trees there have not been able to fill in the gaps as saplings have been routinely eaten. I can help with that, not just by excluding grazers but by planting saplings already on their way.

I have loved the cherry tree this year with its delicate flowers and early leaf colour. There are some large specimens but no small ones so adding to this stock will be good.

I am introducing new species of trees not found on site to increase the diversity of plants. Some of this is personal taste, some from experience visiting other woodlands and some as I am told some species co-exist well together. There are English Elms regenerating in Cumbria which appear to be resistant to the devastation of Dutch Elm disease. I remember the horror of this from my childhood in Surrey and believing that I was seeing the last of these beautiful trees as their crowns died. To be able to plant new ones in my lifetime makes my heart sing. Black poplar are now very rare in the UK. I lived in Blackheath in London with a beautiful one outside my window for 20 years and loved the way the leaves flutter in the sunlight. Bringing those to my wood is delightful. 

                                            Mature black poplar in Blackheath, London

Hornbeam has always been a favourite tree of mine making a lovely canopy. I visited a fabulous rewilding project in the Scottish Borders recently (Carrifran) where they have planted, amongst other trees, aspen. They move in the wind beautifully and have sumptuous colours in autumn so I am including two distinct stands of these. I have always wanted to introduce Scots Pines. These are magnificent trees which grow tall, age well and as with all conifers show good carbon sequestration credentials. They tip the balance in favour of red squirrels which are present nearby. They grow well with birch which are happy on the site so adding some will give an attractive mix. Maple is another new species for the site I am introducing again for its autumn colours.

Carrifran was bald from grazing and apart from this winner of Tree of the Year https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54629745 -  now has nearly half a million trees. A true inspiration.

I have decided not to plant some particular trees. For example beech trees. These are common in Cumbria  with some lovely beech woodlands. Somehow it doesn’t feel right here. I won’t plant larch which has been identified as being at risk from infection. There are plenty of these handsome trees on the other side of the valley. I won’t plant more oaks. These do seem to be regenerating themselves with many on site of differing ages. These are sessile oaks which are native to Cumbria. Bringing in new stock could introduced hybrids and that would be a shame. 

            The Clementine Oak 

                                                Middle oak

Zoning
To break the task down into a manageable task, I started by dividing the plot into 5 zones and walked around deciding which trees should go where. The zones felt logical to me as geographically coherent. But the species I wanted to plant within each zone would differ as you went from the road up the hill to the top. I would want tall trees at the bottom and smaller trees in the middle to keep the views at the top. I realised that these zones only made sense to me as someone who knows their way around the site! So instead I have come up with planting zones which will be planted with the same mix of trees. This means when contractors are planting they can plant from a selection given to them with each planting zone. Each planting zone will have its own species of trees. I ended up with 4 types of planting zone.




 

There are some trees that won't be funded as part of the Woodland Creation Grant - shrubs and fruit trees mostly. I have had people approach me to plant trees on the site and once the major planting has taken place I will be able to create more dense hedges and fill in some areas with spot trees. I am calling this 'infill' below. Bringing more damsons trees to the Lyth Valley which was in the past the damson centre of the England, will be a particular joy.

                                                         


Now I have completed my homework, calculations can now take place to check that I have come up with enough ground to plant on (3 hectares minimum) and enough trees (minimum 1,100 per hectare so 3,300 trees). I am confident that the planting areas will be above this even excluding my Conservations Areas and current trees. I don’t pretend to understand planting densities but once the calculations are done I will see if there is more work to do and have a site visit with the Forestry Commission.

Enough planning and desk work…happily I have easy answers to hand