🌳Western Forest : Tree Planting Opportunities in North Somerset

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As part of the creation of the Western Forest, Avon Wildlife Trust is offering advice, support and funding options to farmers, land-owning businesses, community groups and local councils who are interested in planting trees on their land.

Free advice and support on offer:

  • Site visit and walk over
  • Design of tree planting scheme to support existing agricultural uses, or public/community needs as appropriate
  • Review of funding options and support accessing funding if required
  • Support with sourcing reputable trees and contractors as required
  • Long-term management plan to support tree establishment and overall success of the scheme

This service is free, intending to make it as easy as possible for landowners to plant the right trees in the right place, benefitting farm businesses, communities and nature.

Examples of planting types that Avon Wildlife Trust can help you create (subject to minimum size of site*):

  • Wood pasture or wood meadow: Providing livestock with shade and shelter, reducing heat stress and creating a resilient environment for increasingly warm summers.
  • Fruit and nut trees in arable fields: Diversifying crop production and improving soil quality, which reduces the impacts of drought, flooding and wind erosion and helps tackle nitrate runoff.
  • Hedgerows: New hedgerows provide shelter for livestock and cross-slope planting can reduce runoff. The hedges also act as corridors for wildlife and can be coppiced for fuel.
  • Orchards: Creating additional crop income streams or community benefit. Orchards can also be combined with grazing systems, with the trees providing shade and shelter for animals.
  • Shelterbelts: Woodlands can be strategically planted to act as shelterbelts to reduce wind effects, or riparian buffers alongside watercourses to capture sediment and nutrients from adjacent fields.
  • Field corners/copses and woodland: Planting in less-productive areas can benefit wildlife as well as creating a potential income stream through timber production.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of tree planting, please contact Sonia Parsons (Avon Wildlife Trust Farm and Tree Advisor) on 07579760052 or email sonia.parsons@avonwildlifetrust.org.uk

 

 

* The minimum size of sites that Avon Wildlife Trust can work on are: 0.5 hectares for woodland, or 2 hectares for non-woodland planting (such as orchards/wood pasture/hedgerows etc.)