On the 2nd of December Northumberland Woodland Burial and More Trees Now organises a ‘harvest’ day. On a harvest day one saves surplus saplings to transplant them to places where they can mature. Lots of saplings are removed in routine forest management, but they are a valuable source of indigenous and free planting material. The method was developed in the Netherlands, of whom a small delegation will be present at the event to share their knowledge.
Northumberland Woodland Burial
The harvest event will take place and will be healed in at Bockenfield woodland, Felton. These saved trees will be given away for free at a later stage. The owners Scott and Laura Clarehugh took the initiative to invite the More Trees Now team to Northumberland: “I’d heard about this initiative to reuse saplings to create more green area’s on a facebook group, from someone who’d invited them to Corby. I loved the idea! We’re always here if people want to take a tree home with them and we have plenty of ideas on planting more trees ourselves, so it seemed a good fit. Our next big project is to create a tree-landscape in the shape of our tree logo so you can see it on Google Earth (image at top right of letter). It would be quite special if we could construct it with surplus saplings from our own woodlands”, says Scott.
More Trees Now
Every tree creates hundreds of saplings a year. The majority of these saplings will not reach maturity. They either disappear naturally due to competition, but quite often they are removed in routine forest management. They grow in a peat bog, walking path, or they are thinned to create spaces for more different types of tree specifies and plants. These surplus saplings are a source of diverse, ecological, free and indigenous trees. By transplanting these saplings one can restore ecosystems and create new green areas nearby. More Trees Now is an initiative based on Meer Bomen Nu, a Dutch initiative which has inspired a mass volunteering movement that has transplanted over 1.4 million saplings in three winters in the most densely populated country in Europe. They have created an online tool which allows for a decentralized organization where anyone can organize events and register and track saplings from their old to their new destination. The aim is to make tree planting accessible and free for all who are concerned about biodiversity loss and deforestation.
Community led climate action
The aim is to accelerate tree planting initiatives throughout the UK to stop climate change and support biodiversity restoration. Trees are necessary to preserve biodiversity in both the countryside and in cities, mitigate and absorb waterflow, provide shade in hot times both in and outside of the city, as well as sequester carbon. The UK is currently not on track to meet climate goals, which would require 2 billion extra trees by 2040. At the same time, the demand for trees is at an all time high, for both natural and commercial planting efforts, at a time when climate change threatens forests and trees with pests, drought and storms. Circular forestry could provide a simple and easy solution. Saplings are abundant, and everyone in the community can participate!
