IT’S ALL ABOUT TREES

Any gardener will tell you that the autumn days are for maintenance and care for trees and plants, and it’s just the same for the 11-acre park called Three Cornered Copse.

Another month, another work day, in mid-November saw our volunteer team assemble at the top of the copse. The weather was cool, but dry (for a change), and we set about inspecting and clearing around the hedge whips we had planted many months ago. There were some encouraging results. At least half of the planted trees had taken, and had not been too damaged by rabbits, or passing humans. We are delighted to have helped the biodiversity, as has been recorded by the iNaturalist organisation, where the Brown Hairstreak butterfly has been spotted on our new saplings.

As the hedge matures, it will attract more species and help to muffle the noise from the passing traffic on the busy Dyke Road Avenue. We cleared around the surviving saplings and left the plastic collars around the ones still striving to establish in the long grass verge.

There were other jobs to do as well. The heavy rain of this autumn has softened the soil on the forest floor, and when the October gales blew through our area, several large trees had fallen, blocking paths and the bridleway. Luckily we had enough muscle in the team to saw through the fallen trunks and clear the vegetation. The winds had broken several large branches too, left hanging precariously from the lower branches over the worn paths.

In recent weeks, the Woodland Trust has launched a campaign to plant trees, “The Big Climate Fightback”, using the planting of trees to reduce the CO2 in our air. They say that each tree absorbs 1 tonne of CO2 in 100 years, which partially offsets the 9 tonnes produced by each person in one year. The arithmetic suggests we each need to plant a considerable number of trees in our lifetime to help reduce the CO2 effect, a feat which should easily be achieved by our team of volunteers! Let’s hope that next year the council don’t decide to remove these carbon dioxide eaters by widening the path for the proposed development of Toads Hole Valley. We have one more work day left in 2019, on Saturday December 7, when mince pies may well be served, all welcome as usual. If we don't see you then, have a very peaceful Christmas, from The Friends of Three Cornered Copse.

Simon Baxendale