A note from Eric:
“I went up there this afternoon to discover that quite a lot of the protectors had been thrown around and some bamboos removed. I have put most of it back as well as I can. The protectors seem to split along their length rather easily and are not able to be re used.”
This site was planted by the Tree Group back in December 2021 to provide some screening to the substation and industrial site beyond and to improve the view for the local residents and those using the open area. In what turned out to be a lengthy planting session, over 200 assorted hedging trees, each with stake and rabbit guard, provided by the Conversation Volunteers (TCV) were planted one Saturday morning in December. A number of small cob trees, grown and donated by a Witham resident were also planted.
We then watered the site the following season from mid-April through to the end of September. This too was a bit of a slog as this was the last place to be watered on our weekly watering run of over 200 trees and the hill certainly did not help. Normal practise, as recommended by the Woodland Trust, is not to water whips, a policy we did not follow, and yet about 25% were lost. The following winter we filled in the gaps and will once more endeavour to water the site in the spring and summer of 2023.
It is of course very upsetting to see the site vandalised in this way.
