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Category: STWN news
We have enjoyed a fantastic response from farmers, landowners, the general public and potential new #TreeWardens to our new STWN-branded gazebo at the recent Euston Country Show & Game Fair and the South Suffolk Show.
A shout out to the The Sicon Foundation
The STWN is extremely grateful to The Sicon Foundation for funding the purchase of over 9,000 biodegradable mulch mats and 46,000 bamboo fixing pegs. It doesn’t sound very glamorous but these small jute squares are an important part of our tree planting philosophy. We have already distributed mats and pegs to our Tree Wardens with their Woodland Trust Tree Packs for this season’s plantings.
As many of you know, “the terrible impact of Dutch elm disease in the 1970s plays an important role in The Tree Council’s history. The charity was established in 1974 as part of the national replanting effort which inspired the nation to get out and restore our treescapes. The Tree Warden Scheme was founded in 1980 and rapidly became an important part of the Tree Council’s work.” (quoted from The Tree Council Website Thirty years of Tree Wardening)
So they were delighted when a Tree Warden suggested planting disease-resistant elm trees to commemorate thirty years of Tree Wardening. The elm pictured below is one of four other celebratory elms we are fortunate enough to have been given for Suffolk.
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STWN are Winners!
STWN has won the Greenest Community Award in Suffolk County Council’s Greenest County Awards 2021.
In making the award the judges said: “This wide-ranging project had the advantage of having a positive effect across many communities throughout the whole of Suffolk. It has a lot of support, with many more parishes across Suffolk now having a Tree Warden. Its range of influence and high ambitions to change the landscape of the county by involving local communities gave it the edge in an extremely high quality field of nominations.”
In our winning bid for the recent SCC Greenest Community Award we said: “We are putting trees into the land and on the map. STWN has distributed (in partnership with WT and SCC) 20,000 trees and hedgerow shrubs in 2019-2020. This year we will act as the distribution hub for 4,500 trees and 20,000 hedgerow shrubs. The hedgerow shrubs total 4km of new hedgerows, recognised as a vital biodiversity resource. STWN is also the access point for landowners to place orders for TW Landowner packs totalling 10,500 trees.
Growing Trees for a changing landscape – seed gathering at historic Redgrave Park
Strike a spade into the earth, slip in a seedling and a little bit of landscape history is made. If the seedling comes not just from native but very local stock, valuable genetic resources are conserved. Thousands of trees have been planted under the auspices of the STWN and an increasing number will come from the network’s own tree nurseries in the future, but a little cell grown oak from Tree Warden and Nurse David Appleton’s 2020 sowing enjoyed a very special start this October.
Where once we saw trees in woods, now we are learning to ‘see’ their connections. Nothing joins a forest like its fungi. For much of the year the nutrient and information superhighways of our woodlands are out of sight. Here they live as fine filaments or mycelia underground, under cover of leaf litter and woody detritus or within living trees.
Autumn’s damp mildness stimulates many species to produce their fleshy fruiting bodies or ‘mushrooms’ in a rush of spore production. Perfect then for a STWN Sunday morning foray into Thornham Walks under the expert leadership of Jon Tyler of Wild for Woods ably assisted by Tree Warden Fe Morris who kindly organised the outing.
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Eco-Warrior Award
The Red Gables Wellbeing Hub in Stowmarket had a great turnout on Sunday 7th November when they teamed up with Scorpion Marital Arts Academy (Stowmarket) to create an Eco-Warrior Award where participating children could earn a certificate and a sew-on badge for their uniform by taking part in environmental activities within their town.
26 children + parents enjoyed planting the new hedgerow along the front wall here at Red Gables using a mixture of saplings from the tree nursery and a couple of older dog roses grown in pots. To limit the group sizes, they also took part in litter picking around Stowmarket and had an opportunity to sew some wildflower seed on our wildflower bank.
It was a really good occasion and both children and parents were given the opportunity to look around the tree nursery. We also provided them with more information on how the tree nursery project is funded & how they can get involved in growing trees at home. I think it’s fair to say we have 26 willing volunteers to call upon in the future!
“Together, we can combat ash dieback through harnessing the natural genetic diversity within ash. By bringing together trees showing high levels of tolerance we can start a new breeding programme for ash to ensure it remains a viable option for forestry and the wider environment.”
The Living Ash Project wants to hear from you if you have a tolerant ash tree specifically within a woodland setting.
Link to report a tree page The project is also linked to from our resources page.
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Ash Dieback- new guidance
The ash dieback hub page on GOV.UK. is now live.
The page gives an overview of FC/GOV advice on ash dieback disease and management and signposts to key sources of guidance, including from FC, Tree Council, FISA, NTSG, AA, FR and NE. It has been kept succinct to avoid replication of other sources and should function as an ideal landing page for anyone enquiring about ash dieback.
The page address is: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/managing-ash-dieback-in-england
This link is now on our resources page for future reference.