As National Tree Week 2024 draws to a close, here’s a little look at the importance of trees…
Where have the trees gone?
Here at Wild Haweswater, as is common across much of the Lake District, a huge proportion of the trees that used to exist in the landscape have been removed through history – cleared for ship building, mining and other resource extraction, and latterly, to maximise the amount of space available for grazing by sheep, as well as being under immense pressure from grazing and browsing by unnaturally high numbers of wild deer (a huge issue across the UK, in the absence of wild predators to keep their numbers down).
Naddle Forest here at Wild Haweswater is one of the last fragments of temperate or Celtic rainforest that is left in the Lake District (and the UK). A habitat that once covered 20% of our isles is now less than 1%.
What are we doing about it?
A big aim of our work is to extend Naddle Forest by putting trees back into the landscape where they used to be – through planting and also creating the conditions for them to regenerate naturally.
As is common across the Lake District, Bracken dominates many of the slopes here. As a glade species, Bracken naturally grows in the areas of the woods that receive the most light – on the edges and in the areas where the canopy is more open. So when trees are removed from the landscape, Bracken thrives as it has tons of light, and so spreads rapidly. It is a dominant, dense plant that larger livestock such as ponies, cattle and pigs will trample and root up, but sheep largely avoid it, and so with sheep being the main livestock present in the fells, Bracken can take over. But look closely under Bracken beds, and you will often find signs of the woodland that once grew there – patches of Bluebells, Wood Sorrel or Primroses, that would have once carpeted the forest floor.
So Bracken is a great guide, indicating where trees once grew and showing us where they need to be put back. Our staff and volunteers spend huge amounts of time planting trees into Bracken.
Because these areas have been overgrazed for many decades by livestock and wild deer, planting trees into the landscape kickstarts their return. But we’re also aiming for trees to be able to regenerate naturally themselves too.
In order for this to happen, the grazing needs to be in balance. Overgrazing means that the trees don’t get chance to establish as they get eaten off when they first attempt to grow. However, no grazing is equally as problematic, as coarse, more dominant grasses and Bracken out-compete the young trees and delicate wildflowers. By using our hairy, hardy, Scottish breed cattle and native Cumbrian Fell Ponies, they are emulating the large, wild herbivores that would once have roamed these lands. Their grazing and trampling in low numbers across a large area, helps to open up some of the more dominant vegetation to allow trees and wildflowers to grow through.
It’s a long process to re-establish trees in these areas, as the harsh terrain and weather means they are slow growing. But once the grazing pressure of high livestock numbers is removed, alongside controlling wild deer numbers to begin bringing them down to more natural levels (which is being carried our here by qualified, professional deer stalkers), then trees start to regenerate remarkably quickly.
They do need a lot of care to ensure their success though. This winter, we’ve started a huge tree planting scheme on Mardale Common. It involves putting in 16.5 thousand tree cages out over the next couple of years. Many of these will be planted with new trees, but our Assistant Wardens who are leading on the project, will also be putting protection around young, naturally regenerating trees to give them the best possible chance of survival. Bracken-bashing by our staff and volunteers in the first 10-15 years of the trees life, to reduce the dominance of Bracken around them, also gives them a better chance. Once they are tall/wide enough, they will then naturally start to shade the Bracken out, reducing its presence. It’s a longer term approach to Bracken management, but better for the environment than using harsh chemicals on a steep terrain that also makes cutting it difficult.
Where do our trees come from?
As you can imagine, we need a lot of trees to carry out this work. In the early days, we had a small tree nursery growing Juniper and a few other native tree species, but as our ambitions for landscape restoration grew, we didn’t have the space or staff resource to grow them on the scale we needed, so the trees mostly had to be bought in from commercial nurseries elsewhere in the country. However, this caused a couple of issues: it risked bringing in tree diseases and it also meant the trees weren’t necessarily suited to the harsh conditions of the weather and terrain here.
So in 2021, thanks to funding initially from the DEFRA Green Recovery Fund and our landlord United Utilities, we set up the largest native tree and plant nursery in the Lake District at our office base at Naddle Farm. It has since been extended to over twice its original size thanks to funding from a private donor and Cumbria Connect.
The whole cycle is carried out on-site. At the end of the summer and into autumn, our team of staff and volunteers are out gathering seed, nuts and berries from the plants and trees in our meadows, woods and on the fells. Our team often head to the craggiest bits of the site, searching for remote trees (often Rowan), as if they can grow in the most extreme corners, then their babies will be hardy survivors.
The seed is then processed in our polytunnels, which can be quite labour-intensive depending on the species, and then sown into seed trays with a mix of peat-free compost (from nearby Dalefoot Composts) and sharp sand. Once they germinate, the small seedlings are transferred into individual pots, and some into our large flowerbeds until they’re big enough to be planted out into the landscape. For some species this can be quite quick eg taking a cutting from a Willow that will grow rapidly in the beds and be good to plant out later in the same year, but for others like Juniper, it can be around three years before it even germinates and then another three years before it is big enough to plant out by our team.
What benefits do trees bring?
Trees are incredible. Not only do they help our wellbeing, and support a whole abundance of wildlife, they provide so many benefits to society.
From slowing the flow of water through the landscape which helps reduce flooding, to naturally filtering water to improve the quality of our drinking water (Haweswater reservoir supplies over 2 million people across Cumbria and the North West with their daily drinking water). Trees also provide shade and shelter to wild animals and livestock (and us if we need it!), and of course trees absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, helping in the climate emergency.
Watch Twiggy the Red Squirrel here to find out more about how tree-mendous trees are.
How can you help us?
- If you can spare a few pounds, then you can donate to our work here.
- We’re also keen to have more volunteers helping out in all areas of our work, so drop us an email if you’re interested in finding out more: haweswat[email protected]
- You may also like to be a supporter of our Celebration Wood. This is a great opportunity to tangibly connect with our work and this landscape by donating to plant a tree. Whether in memory of the life of a loved one, or to mark a special occasion such as a wedding, baptism, anniversary or birthday, every tree in Celebration Wood has a story. Start yours here.
Images: (1) Looking up at Naddle Forest by Annabel Rushton, (2) Naddle Forest on one side of Haweswater reservoir and the largely tree-less Bampton Common on the other side by Lee Schofield, (3) Path through Naddle Forest by Mark Williamson Photography, (4) Tree Nursery Officer Jo tending to thousands of young Hawthorns in the nursery by Jim Holmes/Ashden, (5) Twiggy the Red Squirrel, still from the animated film by StudioDOK, (6) Celebration Wood Officer Bea planting a tree in Celebration Wood.
– Blog by Annabel Rushton, RSPB People and Partnerships Manager at Wild Haweswater. Posted Sunday 1 December 2024.
