Hawling
Reforesting 9 acres, and 1 acres of wildflower meadow across two farms, 2021-23 | near Hawling, Cheltenham
~240 tonnes of carbon sequestered
by 2072
Funding Partner
We’re always happy to work in the Cotswolds, an area two of our trustees call home. The windswept hills are devoid of trees, and the once diverse grasslands have been replaced with “improved grass” for grazing, so there is a lot of room to improve the situation. Avoiding some historic quarry sites, an archeological site, and some underground electric cables, we planted 315 trees on one farm, then their neighbors got in touch looking to rewild some unused parts of their farms. Now we’re creating a wildlife network, connecting all new and existing woodlands and scrubland with shelterbelts and hedgerows.
The planting here was a great time. Half of the village came out to help, including neighboring farmers. They cut back a huge patch of blackthron to provide wood chip mulch, which we’ve spread around the saplings to keep back competition from the fast growing grass and weeds.
We’ll be planting the next phase in February 2022 which is another 500 or so trees, and then in Spring we’ve got an acre of wildflower meadow to sow.
The green shaded areas are new woodlands in the 2021/22 planting season, yellow is being sent off to the government for approval for 2022/23, and the orange area is a woodland in need of some management and improvement.
Risks
Deer: Our trees will need larger 1.2 meter tubes to keep the deer away, as there is now known deer stalking in the area, and budget will not allow for deer fencing around the new woodland areas.
Squirrels: A huge population of grey squirrels in the area have been damaging all natural growth on the site, and something may need to be done to control their numbers, or any planting or natural regeneration is likely to continue to suffer the same fate as the saplings in the woodland.