New home for spare saplings

We were left with 120 spare saplings from a tree planting scheme on the A12 in Essex. Last week, we joined forces with the Wilderness Foundation UK to give the trees a new home at the charity’s headquarters in Whitbreads Farm, near Chelmsford.

Among the saplings donated were a range of species, including oak, aspen and willow.

Terri Dawson, Education Officer at the Wilderness Foundation UK, said:

“We are extremely grateful to National Highways for their donation of trees to our site and for bringing an enthusiastic team who volunteered their time to plant them. Our HQ in Chatham Green has 40 acres of natural space including the Jubilee tree plantation, meadows, small horticultural zone and a mature woodland. The trees are a wonderful addition to the site and will be of value to many wild species.”

The charity wasted no time in planting the 120 young trees at the facility, with some used to create a border around a new group therapy area, others surrounding a new flower bed used for growing medicinal plants, and a batch planted to increase the number of trees in the orchard.

Terri added:

“Through the Wilderness Foundation education and therapy programmes we help young people and adults reconnect to society and themselves using the natural world and our site is integral to this. Our programmes highlight the positive impact of wild nature on personal and social wellbeing.”

Sam Woods, National Highways Project Manager, said:

“We are always looking for ways where we can be a ‘good neighbour’ and help-out in the local community, which is why we were thrilled to see the 120 spare samplings from our scheme on the A12 given a home by the Wilderness Foundation.”

Trees and plants are parts of our ‘soft estate’ – the natural or ‘green’ part of our land that includes woodlands, landscape plots and individual trees. The aim is to create a soft estate that will be resilient and sustainable against climate change, pollution, and other threats. Trees are a very important part of this, whether we plant them or they're growing naturally on the land.