It is nine o’clock, Thursday 14 March 2019. The sun is shining high in an almost perfectly clear blue sky – the ideal weather for leading paper supplier #PremierPaper to team up with 30 customers and the #WoodlandTrust to plant trees in the beautiful Scottish countryside; the first of many tree planting days planned for 2019.
Said to have once sheltered William Wallace, Kinclaven Blubell Wood lies just north of Perth; an ancient woodland site purchased by the Woodland Trust in 2018, home to a beautiful collection of ancient oak and beech trees, an annual carpet of bluebells, deer, red squirrel and countless species of bird including three types of woodpecker, yellowhammer, redwing and fieldfare.
The planting site is a cleared field on the edge of the woods that has been deer fenced ready to grow new native woodland. A total of 500 saplings were planted complete with supportive cane and vole protection before the team broke for lunch. The final part to the day included guided walks through the beautiful woodland and then more work clearing rhododendron, an invasive species to the region.
Fast forward to a week later, Thursday 21 March 2019, the morning is slightly overcast, bird song and the river Bovey adding to the ambience on what is a surprisingly warm spring morning. The tree planting team gathered at the entrance to Pullabrook Woods in the Dartmoor National Park before embarking on the 50 minute trek to the day’s planting site.
Bovey Valley is an enchanting cluster of three woodlands, Hisley Wood, Houndtor Wood and Pullabrook Wood, lying in the south east corner of Dartmoor National Park and contrasts with the starker landscape that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles. Together with Trendlebere Down and Yarner Wood (owned and managed by Natural England) it forms part of the East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve. The Woodland Trust and Natural England work closely to manage this area.
The day’s planting site had previously been felled in the 1960s and was turned into a plantation for beech and spruce. Now the Woodland Trust and Natural England aim to restore the area to mixed native broadleaf helping to increase wildlife and diversity in the region. A total of 600 saplings were planted, a mixture that mainly consisted of hazel as well as a few oak, complete with supports and wildlife protection tubes before the team broke for lunch.
Hussein Ismail, CSR marketing manager at Premier Paper, commented: ‘It has been a fantastic day for tree planting at this beautiful location in the Perthshire countryside. As always the success of the day is thanks to our customers and their clients, as well as the Woodland Trust; without any of whom the Carbon Capture programme would not be the industry’s leading environmental marketing initiative. We have a number of tree planting events planned this year.’
The trees planted at Kinclaven and Bovey Valley are part of a big project to expand both sites with new native woodland whilst maintaining the beautiful, ancient woodland that so many come to enjoy whether dog walking, running, exploring, nature watching or picnicking; for now and for years to come.