Planting a memorial grove

We don’t do much tree planting at Somerset Wildlands. As you might expect from a rewilding charity we are largely focused on letting nature take its course and in allowing scrub and forest to regenerate naturally. However, there is a time and a place for everything, and recently we found ourselves planting a beautiful grove of trees down on our new site at Clarks Fields. The reason was simple. The land was donated to us by the Clark family, and as part of the donation they wanted to plant a small memorial grove in memory, and we were only too happy to oblige.

So during a short break between bouts of torrential rain in mid-September we planted the first round of trees for the grove. The planting is being done in two batches. September is normally a bit early for tree planting, but we decided to go ahead with a small number of potted trees, and then do a second round of bareroot ones later in the year.

The trees, and the fully biodegradable tree guards which go with them, were provided by Re-imagining the Levels - a local charity that offers expertise, stocks and equipment for local tree planting initiatives. We planted a range of traditional Levels and wetland species - including alder, downy birch, willow, black poplar and oak. Despite nearly three weeks of heavy rain the ground at that point was still pretty dry from the long hot summer, but we are hopeful they should be able to get established before next summer.

Alasdair Cameron of Somerset Wildlands talking about hope and tree planting.

Tree planting is a wonderful act in and of itself. Like rewilding it in an act of faith in the future, and in the idea that things can get better, which feels like something we could all use at the present time. Anyway it was a great day and all the family and volunteers got stuck in. We even had a bit of help from our other partners in this project, Seed of Hope, who will be developing a 3 acre community garden on site.

We’ll be giving our members first chance at being involved in the next round of the project, so find out more and become a member below.