Page 9 - The Land Trust Annual Review 2016-17

Tree planting 2,000

Trees are an important part of our landscape NEW TREES
and our environment. They help to mitigate
climate change, provide homes for nature, PLANTED AT
and increasingly, their role in absorbing
air pollution is being recognised as a COUNTESS
benefit to health. Although our sites already
include thousands of trees, throughout OF CHESTER
the year, with the help of the local
community we have planted even more. COUNTRY
In January, 200 local residents planted PARK
over 2,000 trees at the Countess of
Chester Country Park; in March a local
school helped to plant 450 at Warren
House Park near Doncaster; and local
businesses Unilever and AB Agri helped
to plant more at Port Sunlight River
Park and Fryston Country Trails.

Creating habitats

We manage our sites to
encourage biodiversity by
creating homes for nature.
Whilst most will have natural
opportunities such as log
piles, we have created bug
hotels and installed bespoke
accommodation on many
of our sites. Following the
installation of bat boxes, a
survey at Wellesley Woodlands
identified nine different
species, and at Avenue
Washlands, thanks to a Tesco 9 SPECIES OF
Bags of Help grant, artificial
Sand martin banks and dry BAT IDENTIFIED
stone wall habitats have AT WELLESLEY
been created and installed.
WOODLANDS

Protecting pollinators
The decline of the nation’s pollinators in recent
years is a serious environmental issue. With a
significant network of sites across the country,
we are ideally placed to support efforts to
help reverse this trend. By altering the cutting
and planting regimes, we have been able
to enhance our habitats and create more
wildflower meadow areas. We have seeded
grass verges across our sites in Warrington
and created wildflower meadows at our coastal
site in Haig, Whitehaven. Our approach can
help even the smallest of spaces; the bunds
along the sea wall at Osprey Quay are home
to Sea lavender and the rare Silver studded
blue butterfly, whilst the planting around the
Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) at Upton
is now species-rich. We have also confirmed
our partnership with Buglife to help create
B-Lines across the country, planting bee
friendly pathways and stopover points enabling
our vital pollinator species to travel easily.

the Land Trust Annual Review 2016/17 9