A good number of ladies met together on Wednesday 7 June when all were reminded that our next get together is to be on Wednesday 28 June when we would be visiting Boundary Mill near Rotherham for a ‘day out’. This was to be in place of having a meeting in July. The Group do not meet in August so our next meeting in the Parish Room will be on Wednesday 6 September, when we shall be hearing from Anna-Louise Pickering, daughter of the late Pollyanna, the wildlife artist and environmentalist.
Formalities over, we were able to enjoy a very interesting and informative talk on the work of The Woodland Trust, given by Gerald Price, a Volunteer.
The Trust was set up in Devon in 1972 so celebrated its 50th birthday last year, has 600 employees and looks after 1100 woods. Gerald took us through the reasons as to why we need trees, the challenges faced, and the actions being taken by the Trust. Human health can all benefit from having trees and woods around us, by providing sounds, sight, smell and even a differing feel of the ground beneath our feet, so something for all to enjoy even those with disabilities. Trees can provide many resources in the form of fruit and nuts as well as supplying timber for building and for the manufacture of paper and cardboard boxes, as well as being a source of charcoal.
Some trees such as the Scots Pines can grow for 350 years. Trees in general can support life habitats for birds of prey, bats and even Purple Emperor butterflies, (at present they can only be found in the south of the country), who all live in the canopy region. Slightly lower, trees can provide camouflage for woodland birds, and dragonflies. Animals such as dormice, can thrive at the base where flora and insects are to be found, not forgetting other insects, worms, and fungi found underground in the roots.
Trees are important for taking carbon dioxide out of the air, so helping to create a source of clean air, can provide shelter and shade, and can help to stop soil erosion. They are capable of capturing carbon, as well as helping with natural flood management.
Seen by satellite, trees cover only 13% of the land mass of Britain, but interestingly, trees in the Chesterfield area cover 16.2% of land mass of the region. Of the total tree cover of Britain only 2% is ancient woodland.
Trees and woods are under threat from climate change, pests and diseases, and intensive agriculture as well as development, and 100,000 miles of hedgerows in Britain have been lost since 1945. So, the work of The Woodland Trust appreciates the need to create new woodlands for protection and restoration. Sainsbury’s and Veolia are among the sponsors for this work.
Shipley in South-East Derbyshire was until 2014 an open-cast mine, which has been transformed into a 700-acre country park offering an attractive and varied landscape. On the edge of Shipley Country Park at Mead, a Young People’s Forest has been established which is managed and maintained by The Woodland Trust. The area has a rich history with the land having belonged to Vikings over 1,000 years ago. Coal mining began in the 16th century and remained an important activity for years. This then has had a grave impact on the biodiversity of the area. Now, native trees such as silver birch, oak, lime, rowan, alder, and hawthorn are being planted with the creation of ponds and open spaces. All in all, many bird species, including barn owls, as well as foxes, badgers and grey squirrels have now been spotted in the Young People’s Forest, which actively engages children and young people to help shape the forest, not just by helping with the planting, but also with the planning to encourage the next and younger generation.
In the Leicester area, the National Forest was established in April 1995 again on land much previously devoted to coal mining. This project has provided not only employment but is now an area for tourism. The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood was planted in 2012, in north-west Leicestershire near Ashby -de-la-Zouch. This now hosts animals, birds and 300,000 new native trees. Flora found there include orchids, which may have been blown in or which could have already been in the soil.
In our more local region, Dronfield Woodhouse, Lady Spring Wood and Frith Wood are great areas for walking and enjoying nature in general.
Just as in 1215 the signing of the Magna Carta took place to guarantee human rights against the excessive use of royal power, so also in 1217 a Charter of the Forest was signed to re-establish for ‘free men’ the rights of access to the royal forest and was the first environmental charter as such.
The call for a Tree Charter was initiated in 2015 by the Woodland Trust in response to the crisis facing trees and woods in the UK. This reached out to all sections of UK society to define this new charter and to build a people-powered movement for trees. On 6 November 2017, on the 800th anniversary of the 1217 charter, a new Charter for Trees, Woods, and People was launched at Lincoln Castle – home to one of the 2 remaining copies of the 1217 Charter of the Forest. It now rests in the Lincolnshire Archives.
Finally, it was great to hear that the National Forest has had 3 million trees planted since 2018, so certainly much is being achieved by the Trust to do their bit to help climate change. All in all, I, for one, learned so much about the work of The Woodland Trust in a very short time and I hope that all attending the meeting that evening felt the same.
Wendy Drake