The cost to plant and maintain a tree in our local woodland for 5 years is around £20, so what does this actually involve?
Our partners at The Forest of Marston Vale have written an excellent blog and you can read an excerpt below. To read the full story and find out more about how you can help pop over to their website.
... We often get asked why, as an environmental charity that plants trees, we can sometimes be seen to cut them down. The answer is simple…it’s about woodland management. So why then does woodland need to be managed – surely trees just grow by themselves? Well, yes they do, but trees are just like us humans. A baby will grow without love and attention, but he/she probably won’t grow into a healthy, well-balanced adult. It’s the same for trees, a sapling with nurture and good management has a greater chance of maturing into a strong, healthy tree.
When we plant a new woodland, we expect to lose an average of 10% of the saplings we plant, through natural causes. So we plant extra saplings to take this into account. After 10-15 years, we thin the trees, removing the less healthy ones, giving the stronger ones greater access to nutrients and space to grow. This thinning process also reduces the canopy cover of the trees, letting more light in, which then encourages different plant species to flourish on the woodland floor. The more plant species there are within the woodland, the more diverse animal species it will support and provide homes for - one mature oak tree can host up to 500 different species! There is also natural regeneration in a healthy woodland, with new trees springing up from the seeds that fall and germinate.
So to create a healthy woodland, management is essential.
What are you doing to reduce your impact on the environment and are you involved in new and exciting projects that are helping to improve the environment?
We would love to hear.
You can also read more about the planning stage - how woodland areas are selected and the hard work involved in bringing them to life
Connect with Midas on social media
Follow #midasgreeninitiative - giving voice to our green mission
#ACTnow #Climatechange