Howard Court is a beautiful farm near the North Yorkshire village of Great Ayton, just south of Middlesbrough. It’s recently been converted to luxury outdoor accommodation for your weekend breaks, and also offers a stunning wedding venue. At the end of February we planted 1,200 trees, and we have adopted hundreds more from a previous reforestation attempt.
Here is one end of the field with about half of the 1,200 trees. On the other side of the river is the previous reforestation effort that suffered 50% losses. We’ve restocked the area and will be doing our best to improve on those survival rates with techniques like mulch mats, amongst various other tricks.
The new planting is all done in a field that was previously only used for light sheep grazing. As such the soil is incredibly fertile, which will help everything grow: our saplings, but also the grass and weeds.
A forester joked "Planting a tree is step 42 of forestry", and it is by no means the last step. Now that spring is here, these young saplings need all the water and nutrients they can get, but grass and weeds will fight them for every bit. If we put these mulch mats down it will kill off the grass and weeds, allowing the sapling to grow big and strong. These mulch mats are made of hemp so after 2 or 3 years they'll simply biodegrade into nothing, leaving no trace of ever being there, other than a happy healthy tree.
We have 1,000 mats to lay, which with 10 volunteers and 3 of the Protect Earth team, should be a reasonable 75 each. Bring a pair of gloves and a mallet/hammer if you have one, and we’ll get this important work done in no time!
Please sign up to volunteer through our Eventbrite page so we know how many people are coming. COVID-19 is still a concern so we have limited the number of violunteers able to come to the event. This map is here purely to help decide if you can make it.
Covid-19 Guidance
At all times it is essential to make sure that you follow government guidance, bearing in mind that local guidance for the planting site may be different than where you are traveling from. All of us have a part to play in reducing the risk of spreading coronavirus.
Please ensure that you keep at least 2 meters distance from anyone who's not in your household group. Two meters is bigger than you might expect: think the length of a typical cow. Given that we'll be outdoors we'll have lots of space and so we ask that you err on the side of leaving more distance than the minimum.
If any of our volunteers gets too close to you for your comfort then please don't hesitate to ask for more space. Likewise if someone asks you for more space then please be accommodating, even if you feel you're not within 2 meters. It's important to us that all of our volunteers feel safe at all times.
COVID-19 questionnaire
If you have to cancel at last minute as a COVID-19 precaution then it's totally understandable; all we ask is that you let us know.
Have you had a dry, persistent cough within the last seven days? Have you had a fever, however mild, within the last seven days?
Have you noticed a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste?
Have you been in close contact with anyone displaying above symptoms, or anyone with a confirmed case of coronavirus, within the last fourteen days? This includes any of your household members.
Have you received a letter from your GP stating that you are in a high or moderate risk category? Or do you fall within the category of clinically extremely vulnerable?
Are you in a quarantine period after traveling internationally?
Do you need to car-share with anyone who is outside of your household "bubble" in order to attend?
Are you residing in an area which has renewed restrictions on travel or the number of people from other households which you can meet?
If you answer "yes" to any of these questions then please do not attend.